Tides of Darkness
by The Sh33p
Summary: The Reign of Chaos has ended. The actors are in place, and the stage has been set. Let the curtains open, and let the final act begin... Third in a trilogy, AU, enjoy!
1. Point of No Return

**Disclaimer:** Only crap I own are the original characters, and even then I don`t own five of them in full. Consider this disclaimer valid for the whole story.  
  
**Foreword:** It`s advised that you read New Age and Reign of Chaos(in that order) before reading this, otherwise you`re probably going to be scratching your head and holding up a big fat sign that says 'WTF?' the entire time. You _have_ been warned :P  
  
Music is as follows:  
  
**Scene One:** Linkin Park - Crawling  
**Scene Two:** Hack Sign - The World  
**Scene Three:** Drowning Pool - Tearing Away  
**Scene Four:** Inuyasha - Strength of the Soul  
**Scene Five:** Trigun - Vash`s Theme  
**Scene Six:** Inuyasha - Kyuuchi  
**Scene Seven:** Bob Seger - Turn the Page(Metallica version works too)  
**Scene Eight:** Big O - Stoning(Transiberian Orchestra - Carol of the Bells works as well, but use it only if you can`t find Stoning)  
  


* * *

  
  


** Tides of Darkness**  
Point of No Return   
  
  
  


_ "Well isn`t this a fine fuckin` mess to`ve gotten myself into?"_ A twenty year old man with blonde hair and green eyes, known to just about everyone and their mom as Bit Cloud, thought to himself. The details of the terrain outside of the cockpit were sketchy, at best, tunnel vision was starting to set in and explosions were going off left, right, front and back, and everywhere else that could be named. He was surrounded, again, by a seemingly endless army of Zoids that wanted to kill him, again. On top of that, he was trying to take on a Geno Saurer that seemed to dodge everything he could throw at it.   
  
Again.   
  
If not for the fact that these scenarios were all playing out under the structure of a headless, eight legged turtle Zoid the size of an Ultrasaurus, and in a land that had, up until he`d last slept, been a mix of a cold and a hot Hell, he would`ve probably felt as if he`d done all of those before. Because technically, he had.   
  
Technically.   
  
Technical details didn`t really matter when over a hundred different Zoids of various shapes, sizes and armaments were shooting at you, now did they?   
  
_ "If he would just hold still for five seconds..." _  
  
No such luck. The red Geno backpedaled at every chance, flashing its boosters at the perfect moment to temporarily blind him, sometimes jumping up out of the way and causing him to veer off for fear of having the Liger Zero`s back broken. Again. When he actually _did_ manage to get close enough to attack, one of the Geno`s support Zoids had rushed in and taken the hit or smashed the Liger off course all together, both of which tended to end rather violently with the Zoid`s death.   
  
The sounds of explosions going off in every direction at once faded away, green eyes narrowed. Gloved hands, their palms and finger joints aching, pulled back on the joysticks of the controls, with feet moving to compensate. Panels on the Liger Zero`s head flipped open, the Zoid`s boosters lit up for an unpredictable burst of speed. A second later, there was a flash of golden light, and a lucky mortar hit that would`ve shattered armor and wreaked havoc on internal structure instead struck into the Zoid`s energy shield.   
  
_ "Keep my sides covered,"_ he thought, trying to manipulate the shield`s shape as best he could. In response, it expanded, not through influence of the Liger`s unconscious Organoid, but the Zoid itself. Within seconds, it had covered the sides and back of the Zero.   
  
The Storm Breaker, that warped red Geno Saurer that would`ve probably made the old Leena Tauros drool, stood imposingly in the distance, almost looking as though it were grinning.   
  
_ "He`s gonna try and dodge... To the left or the right,"_ Bit guessed, more to himself than to the Zoid he shared such a strong link to. Another shot smacked into the energy shield and all but bounced off, the explosion drifting harshly through the air and dying off by the time its last flames hit the grime covered ground.   
  
The Storm Breaker held its ground, the guns on its head firing away at the approaching Liger. Anti-Zoid rounds crumpled and vaporized all over the front of the shield, yet the Zero, and Bit, just kept coming, practically ignoring every other Zoid beneath the Dome they fought under.   
  
It proved to be a costly mistake.   
  
"_Got you_," Bit spat out with a smirk, closing to within a Gojulas` length of the Geno Saurer. The shield dropped, energy transferred instantly into the claws and the Liger Zero leapt forward.   
  
"**_STRIKE LASER CLAW!_**"   
  
A screeching impact of armor against supercharged claws at over two hundred miles per hour, followed by a ghastly shriek that temporarily blotted out the sounds of ceasing gunfire. The Geno Saurer still stood its ground, the Liger`s momentum had stopped all together and its clawed foot was embedded _deeply_ in the side of a gunned up Command Wolf. A few seconds passed, the battlefield stood still as the Liger`s foot slagged its way onto the ground, while the Command Wolf began to gradually stone over, completely dead from the blow.   
  
Silence held. No shots were fired, no roars came and it seemed, for a time, as if the warzone had turned into nothing but a vast field of metal statues, with a few broken looking stone equivelents lying around in pieces. Fiercely, the Liger Zero`s charcoal optics lit up, matched in virtually every way by those of the Geno. The white Liger`s claw, still glowing, tore back up and out of the Wolf`s fossilized body, throwing rubble to the side. As one, the two Zoids began to slowly, cautiously circle each other, stepping sideways with guns and claws at the ready.   
  
** [**_"That`s the **sixth** time this`s happened!"_**]**   
  
He paused in-mind, eyes narrowing for the umpteenth time in the past minutes. The hundreds of support Zoids were starting to close in by now, Rev Raptors and Saber Tigers leading with the Wolves, Kongs and Gunners followed closely, while the Saixes seemed to hang back, waiting.   
  
** [**_"Stop tryin` to do it like a friggin` art form, moron. Just keep swingin` until ya get used to it..."_**]**   
  
"You`re really startin` to _piss me off_," Bit muttered out, feeling the Liger come to a stop with the Breaker doing the exact same thing in front of it.   
  
For a few long seconds, they stood there, facing each other at near point blank. They were so close that their pilots could almost see the lines between the lights that gave each one a clashing orange tint to one side and blue to the other.   
  
And that was when Bit finally lost his tunnel vision, the result of a mental jab from the Liger, and glanced to either side, seeing airborn Saber Tiger`s coming at him from both directions. Almost at the same moment, the Geno`s thrusters lit up, hurling it straight up into the air, backflipping out of the circle and landing somewhere in the closing mob, crushing a few Wolves and a Gunner in the process.   
  
In all directions, even above, Bit could only see a closing wall of claws and teeth.   
  
  
"What the hell happened to this place?" Vega asked belatedly finally giving up on the comm and looking around. The push and pull of the Fury`s momentum, the relative comfort and warmth of the cockpit seat and the refreshing thought that he was piloting one of the most powerful Zoids on the face of the planet were the only reassurances he could get. Those and the comforting, albeit disturbed presence of Specular`s thoughts, something he was still adjusting to after having been without them for so long.   
  
** Nyx was the site of the last stand of those members of the Ancient Zoidian race who couldn`t or didn`t want to be subjected to cryogenics. Men and women, children and Organoids fled here in the hopes that its status as home to a God would keep the apocalypse from consuming them. They were wrong.   
  
** "... I can tell that much. It feels like I`m riding through a graveyard at midnight," Vega replied, feeling a chill rolling up and down his spine. Ash and snow formed into a vaporizing slag in the wake of the Berserk Fury`s engines, creating a wide trail that lead all the way back to the sea, well over a hundred miles away by now. There was no wind, no new snow or ash, and no shifts in the clouds above. None that Vega could see, anyway.   
  
** That`s because this is a graveyard. Or at least, something like it.   
  
** "Do I even wanna know?" Vega asked.   
  
** That`s entirely up to you, Vega**, Specular answered as bluntly as a baseball bat. It wasn`t exactly one of those subjects that the Organoid was ecstatic to speak about.   
  
For a long while, Vega gave no response. In the back of his mind, in some private corner where not even Specular could get at, he thought the matter through. He weighed his options, fought the growing chill that had since begun to run throughout his body and tried to quell the occasional surge of doubt that came with the very place he was in. It didn`t feel like just running through a graveyard, it felt like breaking into a tomb and desecrating it with his very _presence_.   
  
Not a feeling he was used to. Not one he wanted to _get_ used to either.   
  
"Go ahead and tell me," he finally said, doing his best to follow the signal from the only bugs he still had in the Liger Zero`s general location. It was still so far though...   
  
** Not unless you want to know. It isn`t a subject to be spoken about as idly as glorified fodder for a road trip.   
  
** Another short pause.   
  
"I _want_ to know then," Vega finally stated, giving the notion of a sideways glance in Specular`s direction. Even if she _was_ tucked away inside the Fury`s chest, clasped to its Core with virtual immunity to the power that the Zoid commanded.   
  
** Just a few dozen feet beneath us, below permafrost and the uppermost layers of dirt and ash, they lie. There are thousands of them, Vega. _Thousands_ of Zoids lying in a comatose state of system freeze, knocked unconscious by a collective effort from every single Zoidian and Organoid on the continent. All of them died in one last gasp of power, enough to rival Eve herself, enhanced a thousand times over by the local crystals. It was the martyrdom of three generations, former enemies and allies alike. Self-sacrifice with no hope of individual survival, only the hope that their collective end would herald the beginning of a new age for those who went into cryogenic sleep.   
  
** She paused. Vega winced without even realizing it.   
  
** The city lying at the center of this hellish place is the only tomb they were given, and only because all of them fell there with no one to bury them. The end result was that almost every single Zoid across the planet, barring those less violent exceptions, fell into system freeze where they stood. Time and the elements covered them, but they were all concentrated in specific areas. The largest of those concentrations, in both location and number, was Nyx. The Zoids who fell are known only as-   
  
** "The Sleepers," Vega finished with a slow nod, now almost wishing the Fury could tread lightly in mid-air.   
  
** Yes. While the Zoids that survived eventually evolved into the less powerful incarnations that were tamed by humanity, those who went to sleep retained all of their malice, hatred and strength. From the Dark Spiners that devolved into the Spinosappers to the Saber Stalkers that became the basis for your Lightning Saixes, even some of the Geno Saurer`s true ancestors lie here, locked beneath countless tons of ash and snow, dirt and grime.   
  
** "And unless we can get to Bit and help him stop that green-eyed psycho in time..."   
  
** Then they`re going to awaken.   
  
** "And they`re going to remember just how strong they are," Vega unknowingly paraphrased, narrowing his eyes for a brief moment.   
  
"Can`t we go any _faster_?"   
  
** ... Feel like getting out and pushing?   
  
** Vega blinked.   
  
** Didn`t think so.   
  
**   
Time seemed to slow to a complete stop over the course of a half a second. Twenty-three Zoids, most of them Rev Raptors and Command Wolves, flew through the air with matching shrieks and howls, inevitably being yanked back down into the mobs they had been leading. Some were trampled, some bounced off of larger Zoids, others ended up crushing their own comrades, but the result was all the same. Zoids were knocked out of commission or killed outright, a few were able to recover but even they bore wounds from the monster that the army was trying to put down.   
  
Through a sniper-level long range zoom, he watched the melee play itself out, constantly hovering backwards through the ranks of his own support. Everything was expendable for the sake of victory.   
  
_ "You never were the sharpest knife in the drawer,"_ he thought with a crooked smirk, the kind that had murder stamped all over it.   
  
Finally, the Storm Breaker came to a stop. He almost felt himself sinking into the seat a small bit before what was left of the Zoid`s momentum died down. A few more seconds went by, and then even _more_ Zoids went flying, one of which was none other than the Liger Zero itself. Like a demon that didn`t need wings, it seemed to fly up out of the very center of the mob, trailing gunfire while heaving up into the air, boosters at full throttle, jaws open in a roar so loud that it sounded as if it could be heard from miles away.   
  
For seconds on end, it kept flying straight, only to corkscrew itself around and tilt down, shield flaring to life in a blaze of gold.   
  
With that, it crashed back down into the flood of Zoids below, sending severed bodyparts and weaponry flying in every direction and crushing at least one Iron Kong and a Rev Raptor in the process. With that, the glow of the shield was obscured by the crowd and the pilot of the Storm Breaker allowed his brief surge of enthusiasm to die as swiftly as the Zoids he was using as cannon fodder.   
  
"Still as single-minded as you ever were," he commented, voice low and strangely relaxed, given the situation.   
  
More Zoids flew up and out of the crowd, some of them snapping apart like twigs in the path of the Liger Zero, its shield briefly visible every few seconds. From a distance, he saw as a particularly ruthless looking Iron Kong grabbed a Command Wolf by its back right leg and smacked the Ultimate X with it, treating an ally like nothing more than a weapon. Though the shield held, the attack still sent the Liger off its feet. The white Zoid briefly tumbled up over the crowd, slamming down into another part of it with the Iron Kong in hot pursuit. It was still swinging the shrieking, half-broken Command Wolf overhead like a weapon as he saw the Liger get up.   
  
The shield dropped, a claw charged and a few seconds later, the Liger touched down behind the Kong, giving a charcoal glare in his direction. The Command Wolf flew into another part of the mob, where a Saber Tiger ended up disemboweling it in mid-run, while the newly headless Kong stood its ground a few seconds longer.   
  
And then fell over, crushing a Rev Raptor to death instantly.   
  
"Allow me to give you some breathing room, Bit," he replied to the Zoid`s glare with another cracked smirk, the half-smoked cigarette hanging between his lips tilting up as a result. Smoke trailed thinly through the stale, otherwise clean air of the Storm Breaker`s cockpit while footlocks slammed down into the ground, shattering bits of dried lava in the process. The tail straightened rigidly, panels flipped open in synch with the Geno Saurer`s heavily fanged mouth, the gun barrel extending a moment later.   
  
Power levels quickly hit their limit as energy gathered at the tip of the barrel. Targeting systems locked to the Liger Zero`s last location, now obscured by the figures of a dozen Tigers and Kongs.   
  
"_Bye-bye_."   
  
The charged particle gun fired...   
  
  
"**_FUCKING PSYCHO!_**" Bit screeched out so loudly that he couldn`t even hear his own words as part of the mob ceased to exist. The world turned solid white and the Liger Zero roared in distress, clawed feet struggling to gain purchase on weak, melting grime and the quickly softening dirt beneath it. The attack lanced straight through the crowds, plowing through everything in front of the Zoid and leaving it struggling to stand against the wave of pressure that followed.   
  
In a matter of seconds, it was over, and Bit felt his eyes stop wincing. The sight he opened them to was only appealing to the eye if one were a sadist.   
  
Zoids lay strewn about like fallen leaves, centered around a line of quick cooling red embers that sloped into a trench a dozen or more feet deep. Many were dead, others had been dying, but only a few who`d been standing near the attack had gone through it unscathed. Dozens, maybe even _hundreds_ of severed bodyparts, heads, tails and everything in between, lay on the ground, all of them still scorching and burning where they`d last had contact with the beam. Those that still stood, like the Zero, were left immobile from the following pressure wave, yet they still didn`t move even after the beam and the wave had stopped.   
  
They, like Bit and the Liger Zero, were utterly shocked. Perhaps all of the Zoids` pilots or sleeper computers had known they would be little more than cannon fodder, but _none_ had expected this kind of brutality.   
  
A Rev Raptor staggered forward, standing on its last impulses, the entire front of its head and body melted and smashed, both scythes and arms alike having been broken in the process. Bit paid it little mind as it tried to continue on a suicide order to attack him, instead shifting his gaze, now possessed of an almost hellish intensity, over towards the Geno Saurer.   
  
The red Zoid was venting steam, its footlocks flipping back up from the ground and tail panels still open while the barrel of its charged particle gun retracted. For a few seconds longer, it stood there with a palpable tinge of utter amusement, finally straightening up after a while. The slaughterbeast`s jaw slid to a close, menacingly resembling a grin in the mixture of sourceless light, both blue and orange. Shadows cast long across its red frame, drawing out every single detail.   
  
"What kinda sick _bastard_ kills his own Zoids?!" He asked in an absolute _fury_, the kind that made him look almost like a different person all together.   
  
The only response he got was when the Rev Raptor stumbled onto the edge of the trench and fell over, dead and stoning by the time it hit the molten ground.   
  
Feet slammed down like war drums. First a solitary tune, then another joined it. Raptors started shrieking in tune, Tigers roared in song and Kongs rumbled their praise, while Wolves howled in a single, drawn out cry that threatened to block everything out all over again. Bit`s gaze shifted back to the Zoids that had only seconds ago been so fractured almost none of them had been moving at all. Now though, they were all belting out parts of the same song, building tension, shattering the silence that had fallen after the beam hit.   
  
"... And you stupid sonsabitches are still willing to fight for him? _What the hell is wrong with you_?!"   
  
A Saber Tiger flew forward, claws lashing out and its machine guns blazing desperately, pelting the Liger Zero with small hits that quickly began to add up.   
  
"**_DON`T YOU WANNA LIVE?!_**"   
  
Before the Tiger had even landed, the Liger`s jaws had snapped shut around its head, breaking most of the neck in an instant. Like a spoiled child flinging around a rag doll, the Ultimate X threw the dead Saber aside before it could ever hit the ground. An already wounded pair of Rev Raptors were crushed as a result.   
  
More came.   
  
First, a lone Rev Raptor, ducking in low along the trench, only to dive forward at the last second. The Liger threw itself around and activated its shield instantly, cleaving the smaller Zoid`s head off like a battle axe and causing the body to crumple like a tin can. Before the first Raptor`s head even hit the ground, another had landed on the Liger`s back. The shield deactivated, the boosters kicked on and the Rev fell over backwards, where a ruthlessly placed toe kick crushed its throat and killed it. A Command Wolf followed, its neck snapped like a twig between the Liger`s jaws, and then a Tiger, chest blown open by the Zero`s dual impact cannon.   
  
"**_DON`T ANY OF YOU NOT WANT TO DIE?!_**"   
  
More came.   
  
An Iron Kong and another Raptor, the smaller Zoid actually _riding_ in on its larger comrade`s back. The Liger`s shield took the brunt of a whirlwind punch, the Kong`s fist twisting around like a propeller, while the Rev Raptor leapt down at the white Zoid`s back. The shield went down, the Kong paused to regain its balance, the Raptor was caught in golden, sabered teeth and thrown into the face of its ally. The Iron Kong didn`t even budge as its main optics caved in, the head remaining perfectly intact before a golden blur tore right through the Raptor`s body.   
  
A few seconds went by, and then the Iron Kong, split open from its face to its lower stomach, fell over, with the smaller Rev Raptor crushed beneath it. The Liger stood next to the downed carcass, gunning down another Command Wolf and then shoulder-ramming a Saber Tiger`s jaws away. Gold teeth snapped shut on the smaller Tiger`s side less than a second later, heaving it up and then slinging it back down with enough force to rip out a chunk of its body, exposing vulnerable insides to an uncharged thrust of the left claw. Instantly, the Zoid died, its soul spilling like liquid silver onto the Liger Zero`s forefoot, only to evaporate into nothing a second or so later.   
  
"_**ANY OF YOU?!**_"   
  
They just kept coming. More and more, shifting from twos to threes this time. A trio of Raptors, all shattered like glass from a single shield ram. A Kong, a Wolf and a Tiger, the largest gutted from a claw, the smallest shot down and the middle player having its head bitten off. A Heldigunner, a Raptor and another Wolf, the last two being taken out by their own ally`s tailblades in a botched first strike, while the would-be leader was decapitated from a quick swipe of a claw.   
  
There wasn`t end to the legion. _More_ came after that, attacking without number this time, using every gun, blade, tooth, claw and fist that they could manage. More often than not, they took each other out in their haste to strike the Liger down, acting as nothing more than a poorly coordinated mob driven by fear, while the Liger Zero just kept dodging, shielding, clawing and biting through them. To the Geno Saurer pilot, it must`ve looked like a one-sided massacre. To Bit, it was nothing but a blur of screaming and bloodletting, even if the blood was only oil and the only human screaming was his own.   
  
By the time he finally regained his senses, even more bodies lay strewn about. The Liger had been battered from numerous impacts, both large and small, while its shield hovered at only half of its full strength. Still, the Storm Breaker held its ground almost as if it hadn`t moved at all.   
  
** [**_"One o` these days, Bit. That temper`s gonna cost ya..."_**]**   
  
Cold sweat trailed down his face and neck, his palms had started to truly go _numb_ and his knuckles had turned a solid white beneath his gloves. He was holding the controls so tightly that it almost hurt, and his breathing had gone as ragged as if he`d just run a marathon. Almost instinctively, he leered down at the scanner and came close to developing a nervous twitch. There were still too many Zoids for him to even think of trying to go after the Storm Breaker without having to take fire from every direction, and every Lightning Saix but a select few were still waiting at the edge of the battlefield, only passingly hidden beneath the veil of the Dome`s considerable shadow.   
  
"I`m..."   
  
_ Forcefully_, his grip slackened, and the pause in attacks gave him only the barest chance to try and catch his breath.   
  
"This isn`t lookin` too good... Eh, Liger?" He asked, and the Zoid growled a rough affirmative. A Kong lay in ruin beneath the Liger`s feet, and beneath _it_ was a virtual mountain of mangled bodies, all of them belonging to Zoids that had come too close for their own good. Now, rather than fighting the Liger, they only stood to elevate it above everything else. Dozens went into the deathly effort, and dozens more lay all around it, most in pieces.   
  
"We can`t stop though," he sputtered after a few seconds, feeling himself drooling down his own chin. At this point, he didn`t give a damn. "Can`t stop `til we pass the test..."   
  
Zero growled again. It was tired of the tests, compelled into battling on almost entirely by Bit`s own dedication. The Zoid felt weaker without its Organoid, and yet it still held a feral pride and liveliness that set it apart from all others on the battlefield, even the Storm Breaker.   
  
The sounds of guns loading up echoed in every direction, and panels flipped open once again on the sides of the Liger Zero`s head. The Saurer took a step back, goadingly roaring its defiance against an opponent who didn`t seem to stand a chance against it, and the Liger replied in kind.   
  
"Let`s try this again, partner," Bit whispered out, feeling the whole world instantly shift. The Liger complied almost as a result of his own thoughts, lunging off of the pile and landing in a hard, steady run at full speed, boosters burning for everything they were worth. In an instant, hundreds of guns had targeted the speeding Zoid, only to lose track as it wildly threw itself from side to side with each sprint, quickly closing in on the Breaker, which promptly heaved forward and sought to meet the Ultimate X at halfway.   
  
The Liger straightened out with a roar, both from Zoid and pilot, the Breaker landed out of its hover with a skid. In an instant, one grappler arm had fired forward, briefly trailing through the air at a relatively low speed, only to burst forward when miniature rockets around its cabling let loose. The Liger Zero was caught, heavy talons sinking into its left shoulder while the Geno burst up and straight to the side.   
  
A few seconds passed as the two Zoids ended up orbiting each other, with the Geno swinging the Liger around like a yoyo before releasing it. Instantly, the Zero went flying backwards, its thrusters cutting out as it landed with a harsh, unforgiving skid on its belly, bouncing back up and rolling along onto its side to a hard stop. The Geno had again succeeded in keeping the Liger from melee combat.   
  
** [**_"You`re predictable."_**]**   
  
"What I wouldn`t give for the Panzer armor right now... Or even the Jaeger..."   
  
Speed or firepower over what he had now would`ve been an improvement no matter what. The Jaeger`s speed, agility and machine guns would`ve been welcome additions to what he could pull off right now, and the Panzer would`ve rendered this whole cannon fodder onslaught completely ineffective in the opening seconds. Unfortunately, he had neither of those tools at his disposal, and he and the Liger were both paying for it. _Badly_.   
  
"Next time I run off for three days, remind me to put you in the Jaeger armor. Fuck this shit," he growled out. Zero remained apathetic to the thought, instead choosing to pry itself back out of the ground and throw its shield up as the assault from the main crowd began.   
  
Again.   
  
  
"_**ALRIGHT PEOPLE!**_" A voice trailed off in the high sun of noon out in the desert. Winds swept distant clouds of still lingering dust and smoke from the battle that had concluded only a scant few hours ago, distorting the outline of the sands for a mile towards where Farentown had once been.   
  
"Somethin` tells me that he`s enjoyin` this _way_ too much," a ragged looking young man commented, only barely above a wheeze.   
  
"**_START PACKIN` IT IN, WE`RE MOVIN` OUT!_**"   
  
"Yep," a more casual looking young woman replied with a bland tone, both sipping water from squirt bottles and both looking like they were on the verge of hitting their last legs. The two were known, to themselves and everyone around them, as Marcus Harlock and Pierce Summers. One bore the appearance of an escaped prison convict who hadn`t slept in days, the other looked like something out of your average pubescent fanboy`s dreams. Complete with a white t-shirt in place of the heavy duty flight jacket tucked under her arm, and covered with enough sweat to quench a dying man`s thrist.   
  
"Any idea where Abbie is?" Mark finally sputtered out, watching Kyle Mazemia with surprisingly beedy blue eyes. Most people would`ve probably been incredibly _negative_ at taking a job that nobody else seemed to want, but Kyle?   
  
Kyle was practically basking in it. To the point that he was standing on top of the Ivory Blade Liger`s head and practically directing traffic from above. His clothing had changed over the course of the past hours, switching to a loose fitting, stark white jacket, black pants and a matching t-shirt. Whoever the outfit had formerly belonged to, Jamie hadn`t mentioned, and he probably wasn`t going to bother even if anyone asked. The boots, a little worn from age, had probably belonged to Brad Hunter at some point.   
  
"Probably cleaning out the medical supplies. Again," Pierce answered after a few seconds, leaned back against the same leg of the Shadow Fox as Mark. The black and gold Zoid paid neither any mind, instead trading what sounded like almost like insults with the Blade Liger, each one growling out so low that nobody even noticed.   
  
A few seconds more ticked by, people started filing into the forward trailer of Mark`s black-and-blue Gustav. Just about everything had been loaded up by now, from food to water and everything else that could be crammed in between.   
  
"Maybe I should go help her..."   
  
"Don`t even think about it. I still remember the last time you tried to carry around medical supplies," Pierce snorted, giving him a sideways glance.   
  
"Ain`t _my_ fault that Molga got my way."   
  
"_Mmmmm_hmm. Sure."   
  
"Don`t you two look amused," a third voice broke into the conversation, higher pitched and even more exhausted than Mark`s. Both of them gave Jamie a look that could`ve probably melted candlewax, a look that was met with an uncharacteristic apathy. The teen had been the only one who _hadn`t_ helped in some major, physically demanding way, instead helping coordinate everything. He was, in Mark`s unflattering words, a logistics monkey, and he played that role remarkably well.   
  
"We`re havin` the time of our lives, monkey boy."   
  
"... Shut up, Foxer."   
  
"... _Foxer_?"   
  
"... Okay, got a better insult?"   
  
"Call `im Markie. That always gets results," Pierce pointed out from the sidelines, although Mark`s death glare at both of them kept Jamie from actually making use of it. The fact that Mark was a good head taller and looked half-ready to strangle whoever was closest didn`t exactly hinder his decision to keep quiet.   
  
"Any idea where Bill is?" Mark finally asked, if only to keep from being silent. Conversation was like caffiene right about now, to talk was to stay awake and keep energized.   
  
"In the cockpit of his Zoid," Pierce answered simply, thumbing in the direction of the big blue Zoid, its claws and blades undeployed at the moment. Even more than the Blade Liger, the Breaker was probably the main reason most of the people were feeling even remotely at ease, especially given that Jamie had told them of Chapman`s exploits in the battle.   
  
"He`s been there for an hour. Must`ve fallen asleep," she pointed out with disinterest, taking a sip from her water.   
  
"... Enviable prick," Mark snorted. "Why can`t _I_ get some friggin` sleep?"   
  
"Because your eyes aren`t _neon blue_?"   
  
"... Shut the hell up."   
  
  
_ "Come onnnn..."   
  
_ Golden feet slammed into the grime, falling inches short of a cracking, drying stream of lava.   
  
_ "Just a **bit** closer..."   
  
_ Explosions went off to every side, the cockpit rattled and he felt his own weight shifting just to try and stay upright. In doing so, he bared grit teeth, appearing almost as if he were trying to wrestle the Zoid upright in mid-stride.   
  
_ "Don`t fail me now, pal..."   
  
_ Success. The Liger Zero straightened out, its shield gradually starting to shrink until only the very front of the Zoid was tucked safely behind it. It was a crazed measure by a desperate man and an equally desperate Liger. In doing so, they rendered themselves all but invulnerable to the opponent in front of them, yet exposed their entire body to assault from every other angle.   
  
Distance closed.   
  
Claws lit up.   
  
Boosters churned at full strength, and the Liger Zero finally dropped its shield with a jump and a lunge. For seconds on end, it appeared airborn, diving at the Storm Breaker, which had spent the past minutes doing nothing but backpedaling and spraying the black-and-white Ultimate X`s shield with gunfire. Now though, it came to a complete, jarringly quick stop, skidding backwards on both feet and then ducking down with unbelievable flexibility. In an instant, its upper body curled slightly to the side, and the Strike Laser Claw passed right over it.   
  
"**_FUCK!_**"   
  
Bit`s screaming was echoed by the Liger itself, which roared out the feral equivelent of a string of profanity, swinging around on its foreclaws at the instant it landed, then rushing back.   
  
"Gonna _kill_ you!" He shouted, opening fire with his only ranged weapon. The Geno blandly sidestepped, swinging its tail up and then blindly bringing it back down again, right as the Liger lunged beneath it.   
  
There was a sound of crumpling metal and a roaring Zoid, and while the Storm Breaker hopped up with its legs tucked as far in as possible, the Liger Zero skidded along beneath it, then came to a stop ahead of it. With that, the Breaker landed, first one foot, then the other. Bit was so busy sputtering out curses and death threats that he didn`t even realize that the Liger had aimed its own tailgun up at the Saurer`s chin and opened fire.   
  
Where Bit had so frequently missed, the Liger Zero connected, jolting the Storm back several short steps and giving the Ultimate X just enough time to throw itself up onto its feet. Again, the Zoid practically swung around, but this time its back legs came down not on easily destroyed grime, but on the head of a Command Wolf. Alloy and glass alike crumpled and shattered under the Zero`s weight, the tail gun fired again and the Geno righted itself at last.   
  
"You think _cannon fodder_ is gonna stop _me_?" Bit asked annoyedly, pulling the trigger. Just as his Zoid had, _he_ scored a hit on the Breaker as well, causing it to stumble back again from two small explosions across its stomach.   
  
A Rev Raptor leapt through the air and came down on the Zero`s back, shrieking lethally. Before it had even managed to deploy a killing blade on either foot, the Liger`s boosters fired and slagged its shins. The Raptor`s legs gave out and it fell to the ground, flailing around in agony. Bit gave it no mind, using the momentary shock he`d caused to lunge forward again. There wasn`t enough time to power up for a Strike Laser Claw again, but right now, he didn`t give a damn.   
  
One golden claw slammed into the side of the Geno`s head, knocking the thing in the same direction of the blow that had just tagged it. A second golden claw followed, smacking down onto the Saurer`s shoulder and trying in vane to anchor itself with the blow. For a few critical fractions of a second, the landed Saurer and the airborn Liger struggled, each trying to gain the upper hand before the Storm Breaker threw itself into a twist and brought up one clawed hand. A trio of sharpened talons cracked across the Liger Zero`s side and threw the Zoid away, but only barely.   
  
The Liger hit the ground with a hard sideways skid, its boosters flipping off and its optics lighting up furiously.   
  
"**_SON OF A BITCH!_**" Bit finally howled out in the cockpit, one blonde eyebrow now twitching outward.   
  
The Geno Saurer bent down as if heaving for breath, only to throw its head back up with a loud, triumphant roar, akin to a sadistic laugh one might let out after surviving a haymaker without even being hurt by it. With that, the gunned up slaughterbeast turned to face the Liger, seeming to grin in its own way.   
  
And that was when the alarm went off for the umpteenth time.   
  
Bit`s eyes shifted from side to side, spotting the incoming trios of Lightning Saixes, only six strong in total. They were coming in from behind the Geno and to either of its sides, each one using the same draft manuever that had cost he and the Blitz Team their first and only official defeat.   
  
"Here we go again," he muttered out, watching as the Breaker threw its head back again, activating its boosters and backflipping up out of the way. To make matters worse, the army was still crashing down onto him like a tidal wave, as the maimed Rev Raptor`s death cry quickly confirmed. An Iron Kong`s spiked fist crushed the chest without even acknowledging its own former ally`s existence.   
  
It was like taking on an uncoordinated, bloodthirsty, suicidal mob and a dozen special forces teams, all being headed up by the ultimate action movie villain - skilled, powerful, ruthless, mysterious.   
  
It was _not_ a situation that Bit Cloud found himself liking.   
  
Slowly, with one flood of enemies coming from one side and two teams of three coming from the front, the Liger Zero pilot took a deep breath. Even as he did so, his eyes tracked the movements of his only real target, watching the Storm Breaker carry itself further and further away with every passing second.   
  
And then the twilight of day gave way completely as one wave of enemy Zoids began to crash down, a virtual tsunami of blades, claws, teeth and fists, echoed by so many shrieks, roars, howls and screeches that it threatened to almost deafen him.   
  
The Strike Laser Claws lit up, teeth were beared and Bit Cloud let out every single bit of breath in one furious scream.   
  
"**_IT`S SHOWTIME!!!_**"   
  
And the wave came crashing down...   
  
  
Neon blue eyes split open a fraction of a second before a crack of static echoed through the otherwise deathly silent, stale air of the cockpit. Before he`d even heard the voice, he knew instinctively what it was going to say, and before his mind had even registered the words, his body had reacted. Ungloved hands reached forward, grasping the controls as if it were as natural as breathing. He could still remember back when he`d had trouble just handling the thing.   
  
"Alright everyone, we all set?"   
  
"Check," he answered in a voice as bland and exhausted as he felt. A part of him almost wanted to hear some kind of wise-assed snap from Bram, or just feel Laura whack him over the head with a suitably large, blunt object. Another wanted to hear Jeff trying to play the hopelessly screwed peacemaker, and another still just wanted to wake up and find out that it had all just been one long, utterly deluded dream.   
  
"Everyone else?"   
  
No such luck.   
  
"Ten-four, Manwench."   
  
"Ready."   
  
"Aye-aye, Manwench."   
  
"Will you two stop calling me that?"   
  
"No," Mark and Pierce answered at once, drawing a low snicker from even Abbie`s prudish self.   
  
"... Meh. Let`s head out then," Kyle Mazemia ordered a bit annoyedly. It was Jamie`s turn to cut in from there.   
  
"Remember the diamond pattern, guys. Blade Liger up front, Breaker and Fox to either side," Jamie stated as Pierce`s Gustav, trailering along both the Sworder and Raynos, pulled up behind Mark`s own. Abbie was driving that one with some guy named Terry offering to take over during the night shift, Jamie had taken shotgun in Pierce`s Gustav and the others were piloting their Zoids the whole way there.   
  
Oddly enough, none of them found that fact uncomfortable.   
  
"Falling into position on the right," he stated, watching the Shadow Fox gleefully trot along to the right, effectively tucking away Abbie`s Gustav, along with both of its trailers baring refugees and supplies, safely between all four of the other members of the group.   
  
After all the Zoids had moved into position, the makeshift convoy started moving out again, and even the Geno Breaker was reduced to running along to keep from blaring right past the slow top speed of the Gustavs, with both Liger and Fox trotting along.   
  
Soon enough, he`d tuned out the chatter of the rest of the group, leaning his head back and glancing out at the desert. There was still a cloud of smoke and dust drifting around the now fully stoned over form of the Hellwalker. It was still visible though, even through the haze that surrounded it. A silhouette against a background of fading brown and yellow, the colors of the desert.   
  
_ "Rest in peace, Henry,"_ he thought one last time, tiredly shifting his gaze forward again. A part of him was still expecting Sloan to make some obsessive outburst about how cool and shiny the Geno Breaker was, but it never came.   
  
** [**_"What am I supposed to do now?" A younger Bill Chapman asked.   
  
"What you want," the bitter lady who`d done little other than mock and berate him over the course of the past year or so commented.   
  
"... That isn`t a very helpful answer, Riese," he shot back with a muffled voice, still staring down at the townscape from his place on the hill. Blue insects littered the ground in every direction. He was thirteen now, and they still scared the daylights out of him from time to time.   
  
"It`s the only one you`re going to get, monkey," she replied as bluntly as a lead pipe. The contrast between the two was obvious, even if one didn`t know that the woman wasn`t even human. She still wore the same type of blue jumpsuit she`d had on when she first knocked him senseless, still had the posture of a vicious killer waiting to be unleashed and still had a venomous tone to her voice that could make grown men weep. Her arms were crossed over her chest, not like there was very much obstructing them after all, and her weight had a slight lean towards one side.   
  
Bill simply wore sneakers, dark blue jeans and a long sleeved brown shirt. His legs were tucked as close to his chest as he could manage and his arms were laid out across them, with his face leaned forward and half-concealed by a forearm.   
  
Behind the pair stood only a single gigantic form, and to their collective right was a dragon-like creature, lying boredly on its stomach.   
  
"Did you have to mindwipe all of them?"   
  
"In my younger days, I would`ve just wiped out the whole town and been done with it," Riese answered, possessing a rather disturbingly casual feel to her voice. "This way, they live. You`re free now."   
  
"Free to do what?" He snorted. "If they don`t even know who I am..."   
  
"Then you don`t have to worry about hiding Borealis anymore. Nor do you have to worry about hiding him, either," she stated uncomfortingly, finally nodding back at the shadowed form of the blue Geno Saurer. Its eyes lit up briefly, but it made no sound.   
  
"You didn`t even answer the question," he pointed out bemusedly, staring down at the town he`d once been able to call home.   
  
"You`re free to do anything you want. What part of that don`t you understand?"   
  
"All of it."   
  
There was a pause. Riese sighed and Bill finally began to straighten up, having to work to keep his balance on the steep incline of the hill.   
  
"You`re a fan of history, aren`t you?" She asked, losing a bit of her venom for a moment.   
  
"Van Fleiheit, you mean? Yeah," he ansewered after a few seconds, dusting the back of his jeans off.   
  
"You know how he got started, don`t you?"   
  
"... No. I only know a bit of what he did before he killed the first Death Saurer," Bill answered with a bland tone. He had only ever really gotten into stories about Fleiheit`s exploits from after he had joined the Guardian Force. Before that, there just wasn`t much to interest him.   
  
"Take a look at how you met Borealis and the Geno Saurer," Riese replied.   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"Van Fleiheit met Zeke and his Shield Liger in a similar fashion. He stumbled onto his Organoid while running for his life, and then Zeke revived the Shield Liger from death," she explained, pausing for a few seconds to let that little bit of information sink in.   
  
"... Neat," Bill finally half-sputtered upon coming to the realization that right now, he really wasn`t all that different from how his childhood hero had once been.   
  
"The difference between you and him is that, rather than sticking around in a backwater shithole like this or the Wind Colony,** he** had the guts to take a chance. At age fourteen, he took Zeke and his Liger, along with a girl named Fiona, and left to go become the greatest pilot that ever lived."   
  
"A year older than me," Bill noted with a raised brow.   
  
"Exactly. You now have the freedom to go become your idol, or to become more than he ever was," she stated, finally turning away.   
  
It was then that Bill finally glanced over his shoulder, starting to speak but stopping short of actually getting any words out. Almost as if hearing the unvoiced thought, even though Chapman seemed to be immune to Riese`s mind reading, she turned back over her own shoulder for a second and gave him a bland look.   
  
"Don`t waste it."_**]**   
  
None of them did.   
  
** [**_"And your name is?" A slightly younger Sloan Tendro asked, glancing up from the sign-up desk. The conversation was backlit to the hustle and bustle of the Pilot Sign-up Convention, a semi-annual gathering of free agents, mercenaries and team managers alike, all of it hosted by the Z.B.C. as a way to help pay for itself. The event was so large that it sucked in tourists and merchandisers by the truckload, and was almost singlehandedly responsible for making Romeo City the largest in the Neutral Zone.   
  
"Bill Chapman," he answered simply, hands tucked securely into the pockets of his blue jacket. He was fifteen now, and he looked it. His hair had gotten a bit longer, tilting further to the right, his face looked a small bit rougher around the edges, and his sense of style had changed. In addition to the blue jacket was a tan green undershirt, dark red cargo pants and plain black boots.   
  
"Are you a registered pilot?"   
  
"Got registered yesterday," he answered again, watching the interest automatically die down in Sloan`s eyes.   
  
"Have you even fought any battles?" He asked, staring blandly at the teen.   
  
"Do bandits count?"   
  
"How many?"   
  
"Three groups, four battles," Bill answered.   
  
"How many did you win?" Sloan asked, idly turning his attention elsewhere and starting to balance his pencil on a fingertip.   
  
"All of `em or I`d probably be dead by now."   
  
"What Zoid do you pilot?"   
  
"A Geno Saurer."   
  
There was an instant pause. Sloan`s pencil clattered onto the table and stayed there, while a pair of now **highly** interested eyes shifted up to regard the teen.   
  
"A Geno Saurer?" He asked.   
  
"Yep. And I have an Organoid too. They`re out in the parking lot," Bill answered, shifting his weight back and forward on both feet.   
  
"Welcome to the Thunder Team," Sloan stated bluntly, his eyes practically swollen into gigantic, sparkly hearts with stars twinkling in them. If it was possible to have a designated Fanboy Look, Sloan was wearing it._**]**   
  
That was okay though. Even if his past families had been made to forget him, or wiped from the face of the planet by an orbital particle cannon, it was still okay.   
  
** [**_"This... **Is**... **MINE!!!**"_**]**   
  
He had simply done the same thing as before.   
  
He had found himself another family, and although they lacked the...   
  
** [**_"**GIMME THAT DONUT BEFORE I RIP YOUR FACE OFF!!!**"_**]**   
  
_ Refinement_ of the old one he`d been adopted into, they still had their own-   
  
"**_WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THE FUCKING POPCORN BOWL ALREADY?!_**"   
  
"_Never_."   
  
"Marrr_rrrr**kie**_..."   
  
"Fine, fine."   
  
- _unique_ brand of insanity. With a little time and effort, he was starting to feel, he would be able to fit right on in.   
  
That thought alone was enough to cause a ragged little smirk to cross over the face of Bill Chapman.   
  
  
"Strike..."   
  
Gold lit up for the umpteenth time, met only by a backdrop of charring paints and teeth. It was all he could do to keep from having a mental breakdown, trapped in a nightmare of fangs, claws, talons and fists that would`ve made grown men weep like children.   
  
"_Laser_..."   
  
The head of a Rev Raptor caved in under the weight of the claw. Mightily, the white king stood against the combined weight of every single pawn on the board, unaware that the knights were already setting up for an ambush. Once more, boosters lit up, and like a cat struggling to reach the surface of a lake, the Liger Zero began to literally swim through the masses of Zoids piled atop it.   
  
"**_CLAW!!!_**"   
  
The light turned into a pocket sized super nova, boosters hit their maximum and an Iron Kong found itself with a Liger-sized hole in its chest. Before it had even started to stone over and die, the Liger Zero had managed to break free, bursting out of the mob once again with a ragged nobility that defied logic and description alike. As if it were a god among the realm of the dead, the Zoid righted itself in mid-air, then came back down.   
  
Its only gun blazed, and a Lightning Saix was caught in its path while running at full speed. Shells rained into the cockpit and shattered the sleeper control system, leaving the suddenly brainless Zoid to stumble at mach one and go crashing into the mob. A half-dozen Raptors, a Wolf and a Heldigunner all found themselves crushed to pieces as a result.   
  
The Liger touched down in a hard skid, jaws snapping shut like those of a gator to catch a second Lightning Saix. Bit wasn`t even able to register the sound of sabered alloys crushing through glass and armor alike, although the sensation of being swung like a rag doll in the cockpit when the Liger threw the useless Saix aside didn`t escape him at all. By the time the Saix`s pressure wave hit, the pilot of the Zero felt as if his stomach were two steps shy of caving in on itself.   
  
_ "I can`t keep this up for much longer,"_ he thought, looking to his side as the Liger through its head forward again. Like a hammer, the side of its mouth came crashing across a third Saix. In one fluid motion, the Liger swept into a crouch while the Saix, its neck snapped like a twig and its jaw broken so badly that teeth had gone flying into the grime below, went flying overhead. The Liger smoothly brought itself to a stand and the Saix crashed into a salvo of missiles from an Iron Kong.   
  
Suffice to say, the feline Zoid had died before it`d ever hit the ground.   
  
Again, the Storm Breaker appeared, taking advantage of Bit`s momentary slugging match with self-doubt. Like a raptor in its own right, the slaughterbeast crashed down on both feet next to the Liger, took a step forward and swung its leg out.   
  
"_**SON OF A BITCH!**_" Bit sputtered as the Liger took a hard kick into its stomach, bladed talons ripping a shallow trail across the Zoid`s gut. The Saurer stomped back down to the ground, but as it brought its left grappler-claw down, Bit managed to cover.   
  
Sharpened alloy hit nothing but air, the Liger swung forward and around and the Geno struggled to compensate. Both of the main gattlings rifles were brought to bare in record time, but their attacks hit nothing but shield energy as the Liger Zero hurtled back around at full speed, impacting the Breaker right across its hip with a shield ram manuever. Almost instantly, it seemed that the tables had turned.   
  
"_Got you_," Bit stated fiercely, watching shots ping off of his shield as he made another ramming attack. The Geno staggered to one side in response, then finally managed to bring itself into a tailspin on the third ramming attack.   
  
Alloy met force shielding, and surprisingly enough, alloy win.   
  
The Liger`s momentum shifted into an awkward sideways lurch at near-full speed, and for a few critical seconds, it was all that Bit could do to keep from toppling over all together. Those were all that the Storm Breaker needed.   
  
Even as the Liger was struggling to right itself and come back around, the Saurer had burned in on a collision course for the smaller Zoid`s rear end, hosing the Liger`s lower back with fire from everything but the mortars and charged particle gun. In an instant, the Zero had to skid to a halt or face falling over all together. Either way though, the gunfire quickly took its toll, trailing a series of pock marked holes and miniature craters into the Liger`s back and rear by the time the Breaker finally made impact.   
  
Knees smacked into hips, the Liger`s tail gun fired blindly into nothing and the shield finally gave out as the Geno Saurer literally belly flopped onto it at full speed. Instantly, the Zero`s legs gave out, and Bit found himself facing the prospect of vomiting as he was hurled around once again.   
  
While the Liger lay on its belly, the Saurer quickly stood up and jumped forward. Once more, boosters let loose, and once more, the Liger sprang up to its feet, tail gun blazing into the Saurer`s face as it touched back down into the polluted grime beneath both feet. The Geno stumbled back once more, its head gattling briefly locking up before blind firing through the smoke.   
  
By then, the Liger had swung back around and dove into the frey once more.   
  
Uncharged claws slammed like jagged edged hammers into the Saurer`s shoulders, while saber teeth locked shut onto the Geno`s neck. Furiously, the two grappled as only wild animals could, claws and talons beating each other to a pulp while the Liger`s mouth held onto the Geno`s neck. In a way, it was like watching a contest based purely on strength, with each Zoid struggling for purchase on the weak snow and ash beneath their feet.   
  
At last though, the Geno seemed to win. The Liger fought to stand, forelegs wrapping violently around the Breaker`s neck area with teeth sinking in even deeper than before, but a sudden burst from the Storm`s thrusters put everything on edge. The mobs closed in at ever increasing speeds, and a Saber Tiger finally leapt forward.   
  
"Come on, Liger..."   
  
The Tiger raced through the air, a set of thrusters across its body firing up to give it that much more height.   
  
"Just one more boost and we can end this..."   
  
The tired Zero complied with one last burst of its own thrusters. In an instant, one leg gave out, only to swing back up into the Saurer`s inner knee. The Liger`s body twisting into a deathroll, and the Saurer found itself thrown to the ground on its side. Over a hundred tons of metal hit grime and rebounded up several inches, only to skid to a halt. The Saber Tiger whipped overhead and hit nothing, while the Liger righted itself.   
  
Grapplers fired at point blank, the Zero jerked back and then went flying when the forearms revealed once more that they had miniature rocket engines tucked away inside of them. Talons sank in for a moment, then released once the cables had hit their maximum and retracted back in. For a few seconds, the Liger Zero tumbled backwards, then managed to right itself once again without even using its tortured boosters.   
  
Once more, the Tiger made a charge, but this time, its head wound up severed roughly at the neck by an uncharged claw. The body hit the ground and collapsed as the Liger recovered yet again. The white Zoid turned to face the Geno as it stood, only to let out a series of shots from its double impact cannon, backed with a scream from the pilot.   
  
"**_DIE, YOU ROTTEN SON OF A BITCH!_**"   
  
Harshly, the Breaker staggered back again, but it was the Liger that ended up on the recieving end after that.   
  
Cannon rounds, missiles, beams and rockets of all shapes and sizes rained in. A half-a-dozen Zoids were shredded to bits in the assault, but every single round managed to strike the stationary Zero in some place, tearing into armor like it wasn`t even there.   
  
_ "How could I let myself get caught like that?!"_ Bit admonished himself, _willing_ the Liger to avoid a command system freeze. Every single impact made the knot in his gut pull a bit tighter, while a pit began to form in his chest.   
  
Finally though, the smoke cleared. The mob stopped firing, apparently convinced that the Liger had hit a complete freeze even though it still stood even now. Battle damage lined the Zoid`s entire side, which had been tinted a ghastly shade of charcoal black, leading to stained white on the other side. One optic had dimmed completely, another seemed to burn with just as much intensity as ever, yet what armor remained all over now looked like cracked porcelain.   
  
"It ain`t gonna end like this," he growled out, only to find that he couldn`t even believe his own words. Everything in his body felt as if it were on the verge of giving out, not from true injury, but from the pain of the Liger. By all means, the Zoid should`ve been dead by now.   
  
But it wasn`t.   
  
And neither was he.   
  
"I haven`t even _begun_ to fight yet," he stated with a sneer. This time he managed to say it well enough to convince himself, even as his vision blurred in one eye.   
  
The Geno`s cockpit had been cracked from his attacks, the Zoid was as still as a statue right now, as were all of the others on the one-sided battlefield. They really _did_ think they had won, didn`t they?   
  
"I don`t know who you are," he began with a few deep breaths, unaware that his comm had been on all through the battle. "But I`ll paint you in my own _blood_ before I quit fighting."   
  
"Still playing the tough guy, eh, Bit?"   
  
Glass shattered in mind. Every ounce of resolve that he had left crashed right through Hell`s roof and burned up before it could ever hit a lake of fire, and that nausea welling up inside of him finally let loose. Deprived of everything that had been driving him, unable to hold back anymore, Bit Cloud did the only thing that he could.   
  
He lurched forward and threw up in the foot of the cockpit.   
  
Deprived of the once iron will that had been backing it, the Zero`s consciousness finally gave out as well. Where its remaining optic once shined with the fire of a dozen suns, it soon dimmed out completely. At the same time, three simple litters scrolled across the main console, even as Bit continued to heave into the floor.   
  
_ [C.S.F. C.S.F. C.S.F.]   
  
_ "Whassamatter, blondie? Not the reunion you were lookin` for?"   
  
"It can`t be you," Bit finally muttered out. His throat felt like raw sandpaper, chunks of stuff he didn`t even want to know were previously rotting in his stomach now lay between his boots in a pool of bile and blood, and though his vision had stopped blurring, he was now seeing triple.   
  
"It just can`t..."   
  
"Denial as usual. You never were a classy loser," a triplicated face stated within the confines of a pop-up window in front of him.   
  
Before Bit could even make out the details of his enemy`s amused expression, the Geno Saurer`s tail came whipping down.   
  
Glass shattered again, but this time it was real.   
  


_ End Chapter One  
  


* * *

  
  
_

**Author`s Note:** Not an uberlengthy bunker buster deathbomb of text, but I`d say this is a pretty good beginning for the end...  
  
And sorry if the ending felt a bit rushed. It was written at 6:00 AM. Likewise, the Billscene was driving me insane so I just wanted it out of the way. Sorry for the delays in getting this whole thing up, too.  
  
Enjoy, leave a review, so long and Sh33p out! 


	2. The Wheel of Fire

  
  
**Foreword:** Music selection is as follows:  
  
**Scene One:** Silverchair - Anthem for the Year 2000  
**Scene Two:** Rurouni Kenshin - Hiko Seijuro`s theme(or Kenshin vs Aoshi... It`s the same song, just longer)  
**Scene Three:** Rammstein - Du Hast(German version)  
**Scene Four:** Hack Sign - A Stray Child  
**Scene Five:** Witch Hunter Robin - Discord  
**Scene Six:**  
**First Half:** Linkin Park - Crawling(Reanimation version, featuring Aaron from Staind)  
**Second Half:** Phill Collins - In The Air Tonight  
**Scene Seven:** Zoids - whatever the hell Zoid Eve`s theme was(only version I have of it is the Alpha and Omega cut from Zinou, not sure if that`s the real name though)  
**Scene Eight:** Linkin Park - Opening  
  


* * *

  
  


** Tides of Darkness**  
The Wheel of Fire  
  
  
  


Reverence permeated the aftermath of the battle. It had been one against hundreds, and the dead lay strewn all over the place. Raptors, Wolves, Tigers, Kongs, Gunners and Saixes alike littered the former battlefield, the vast majority of bodies focused in one or two areas as a result of their own leader`s ruthless actions. They`d all been nothing but cannon fodder, even the Zoids themselves had accepted that fact, but they`d still served the purpose for which they were meant to carry out.   
  
The Liger Zero was down, and it wasn`t going to be getting up anytime soon.   
  
Light played tricks on the imaginations though, of man and machine alike. Shadows danced across its scorched, battle broken carcass, and even after the violence that it had both inflicted on others and suffered from in return, it still refused to die. Like a hellborn demon that had terrorized generations of people in their sleep, it seemed possessed of the capacity to get back up at any moment. To keep fighting as it had en route to the Wind Colony. To attain an impossible victory against odds that would`ve made the finest generals in history weep like children.   
  
But it didn`t.   
  
Its cockpit had been virtually shattered open in the last attack, a downward swipe of the tail that had driven the Zoid face first into the grime and grit that covered the terrain all over the continent. The once mighty king, the zero that singlehandedly represented defeat to countless opponents in the past few months, now lay in ruin upon its stomach. Its optics, what remained of them at least, were dimmed to the point that they were as black as the scorch marks covering most of its body. Its teeth, stained with blood and oil to the point that they would rust if left unchecked, had been broken during the fall. Every stabilizer hosed sparks into the air, only to die down for a few moments and repeat. Even its tail lay limply across the grimy ground beneath it.   
  
Almost as if they were mourners at a funeral, the few hundred Zoids that had survived the slaughter had formed up into a circle around the two combatants who`d carried out such a violent battle even when they`d done everything in their power to keep them seperated. Optics of every color in the rainbow lit up, wolfish tails hung a bit lower than usual and heads bowed no matter what the artificial control systems or pilots wanted.   
  
The only beast that didn`t seem saddened in the slightest at the battle`s outcome was the one who had been victorious in almost every meaning of the word.   
  
Like the tyrant king that it was meant to be, the red Geno Saurer, slowly stepped back, sparks flying from its damaged throat. Slowly, the Zoid seemed to draw in a breath all its own, even without the lungs to actually do so, then threw its head back. The body bent back in reply, with the tail curving upward. Swiftly and loudly, the slaughterbeast`s jaws swung open, giving way to a roar that shook every living thing within a dozen miles straight to the very core. The ground seemed to rattle against it, and at long last, the finishing touch had been applied to a one-sided blitzkrieg whose outcome had been easily visible almost from the get-go.   
  
Bit Cloud had struggled with all the valor and might that he could`ve possibly brought to bare. He had turned what could`ve, should`ve and _would`ve_ been a complete knockover into a battle the likes of which people should`ve written songs about.   
  
And in the end, it just hadn`t been enough.   
  
At long last though, the Storm Breaker seemed to calm down, lowering its head and returning to a neutral stance in the process. The cracked half-shell that was the armored plate over the cockpit finally slid open, its hinges creaking the entire way down. A few moments after that, the terse silence broke once more as the cockpit seat and the forward console both lowered down towards the ground on a sloped mono-rail, gears and wheels clicking and slapping together the entire way down.   
  
And then it stopped.   
  
And then the lone pilot unbuckled the harness, causing four of the five straps to snap back into place. The zipper that ran up from waist to neck on the flight suit was promptly forced open as the man stood up, nonchalant and even pleasant in a morbidly casual sort of way. Flight gloves had been tucked into a pocket somewhere, and after that, track marked arms pulled themselves from the confines of the suit, its upper half being left to hang down behind him. He wore a black wifebeater beneath it, along with a small necklace that boasted an old Guardian Force ring with the mixed Republican and Imperial emblem obscured partially by a rough looking X, and the only marks that served to identify him as anything other than your typical evil henchman were a pair of tan green stripes across his arms, midway of the shoulder and elbow joints.   
  
They were the stripes of a mercenary, which was exactly what he carried himself as.   
  
Steel toed boots with short spikes on the soles and leather buckles in place of typical laces crushed softly through already battered ash and snow, leaving a visible trail of footprints in their wake. One hand casually went to tuck itself into a hip pocket on the jumpsuit, while another reached up to a shoulder clipped walkie-talkie and pressed its only button.   
  
"Send in the clowns, C&C, this one`s over," he stated with a voice that was self-superior, carefree and utterly lacking in human decency all at once. "Cat`s in the bag, ya might say."   
  
"Copy that, Vandal. Fixers are in-bound."   
  
Without even giving the controllers something along the lines of good-bye or thank you, he effectively hung up by releasing the button on the talkie. With that, he came to a complete stop in front of the downed form of the Liger Zero. Though the cockpit had been broken open, the upper part of the head still struggled to remain intact, literally hanging in place by ribbons of glass and alloy. Even with his view partially obscured though, he was still able to see the beaten form of the pilot within, with far more clarity than three seconds on a monitor would allow.   
  
His response was fitting, and quite accurate as well.   
  
"You look like hammered _shit_."   
  
There was no small amount of victory laced into that comment either. He took pride in having been the first person to truly _break_ Bit Cloud, not just in a Zoid battle, not just mentally and not just physically, but all three at once. The defeat was so complete that it had apparently shocked him into unconsciousness.   
  
Not that he seemed capable of doing much now anyway. His face had several cuts here and there, vomit was crusting up on his chin, his mouth hung open and his head had lulled to the side. Although his eyes still opened every now and then, they were completely blank in expression. The lights weren`t even on, and nobody was home. The only thing that appeared to keep him from falling over all together was the broken harness he was leaned sideways against.   
  
"I didn`t even look that bad when I was spun out for a month," he commented somewhat snidely, almost poking for a reaction.   
  
When he got nothing after close to a minute of waiting, the man finally grew bored and stepped closer, blatantly disregarding the fact that he was within inches of a virtual killing machine. With the kind of carelessness that seemed to contradict every tactic he`d used in battle, he climbed up onto the Zero`s snout and nonchalantly began to stomp in what remained of the cockpit glass.   
  
"Wakey, wakey!" He announced.   
  
No response.   
  
"Shouldn`t the _Royal Cup champion_ be a bit tougher than that?"   
  
Still no response.   
  
Finally, the man dropped into a crouch on spring-like legs, bouncing gently before propping his weight forward on one hand.   
  
"Don`t I at least get a hug?"   
  
Nothing. He leaned forward a bit more, grabbing a piece of debris and nonchalantly poking the downed pilot`s cheek with it.   
  
"What a shitty reunion..."   
  
"_**I`LL KILL YOU!**_"   
  
Three things happened in one second.   
  
The man jerked back, Bit`s fist went flying out in an awkward hook that hit nothing but thin air and the safety harness snapped him back into place before he could try and lunge forward. The end result was that his arm flopped to the side while the harness snapped him back into position. The man he`d laid a death threat on didn`t even seem phased aside from how he`d all but jumped back.   
  
"Temper, temper now," he chided, hopping backwards to the ground without a care in the world, then laying his arms out across the snout of the fallen Liger.   
  
Bit`s only response was to flail around in his harness a few moments, at least until he remembered to undo the thing by trying to flip it up over his head. Unfortunately for him, it was locked into place.   
  
"You haven`t changed a bit, chimp boy."   
  
"**_FUCK YOU!_**" Came the reply as the blonde began to try and literally force the harness up over his head. The response the blonde got was a crooked little grin that would`ve made Leena cringe.   
  
"Did widdwe Bitty-witty get his ass kicked?"   
  
The pegged wheels that served as locks for the harness finally began to move again, jammed into place from a lack of power.   
  
"You son of a _bitch_," Bit sputtered out in-between rabid growls and the sounds of the exertion that came with trying to move something designed specifically to avoid being moved at all.   
  
"That makes two of us then, Bitty."   
  
That crooked grin expanded to the point that it almost spanned the length of his face, from one ear to another. The smug sense of victory that lined it was the last straw.   
  
The harness` hinges finally snapped apart and several pieces of padded metal went flying through what remained of cockpit glass and head armor, cast aside like the dead weight it had become. With that, Bit lunged forward, all but diving out of the cockpit at the man who`d just defeated him.   
  
The last thing that he saw was a sidestepping motion from the fellow, then an elbow crashed into the base of his skull. The world went blank, and a moment later, his face hit the grime and stayed there.   
  
"Still as predictable as ever."   
  
  
Miles from the site of the battle, a pair of red-and-blue optics narrowed to the brink of slipping shut all together. Metallic brows covered in mirror-like feathers of the same make, inched forward to the point that the space between them seemed to furrow, while a sharply pointed beak remained locked almost motionlessly in place, even though its lower jaw was tilting around as if popping. Wings that were easily the width of an actual Storm Sworder briefly unfolded into gigantic half-arches, their blades fronts pointing towards the structure that had sheltered the battle from the hellish skies above.   
  
After a few lingering seconds of silence, talons as sharp as one ton razor blades slipped out of their sheathes on the front feet, knifing straight through several feet of snow and ash-mixed grime, then digging straight into the ground beneath it. Silver energy began to radiate from the corners of both eyes, forming into what looked almost like some sort of fog. Slowly but surely, it began to drift and fade in the almost lethally stilled air that formed Nyx`s changed atmosphere.   
  
The creature`s name was Roc. He was, quite literally, the First Born, one of the oldest things that had ever set foot on Zi. The model by which every other Organoid that had ever, or would ever live was based upon. Even in his current state, the beast radiated nothing short of raw power and wisdom, underscored by a nobility as savage as the woman that was its bondmate. Right now though, something else was also flowing from the Ancient, something evidenced by the fog-like energy drifting from around his eyes.   
  
Anger.   
  
Unspeakably powerful anger, the type that bordered on all consuming rage.   
  
With all of the might at the tips of his talons, one would`ve been right to think that he could have, should have and _would_ have gone charging in to take over the situation right then and there. By all means, Roc could`ve slaughtered every living thing on Nyx a half a dozen times over before the hour had ended, but he stood back.   
  
He had to follow the rules of the game, so to speak.   
  
** It is not over,** he seethed, giving only the passing notion of a vengeful glare towards the red light still glowing off in the distance like a candle in an otherwise unlit Hell.   
  
The only response was a sadistic little chortle of a laugh, echoing across the lifeless terrain of both reality and the mind.   
  
** Mark my words,** he began, only to continue after finding that the laugh held no identifiable source. It is not over...  
  
  
It had all been a dream. An unpleasant dream, but a dream nonetheless.   
  
At least, that`s what his unconscious mind had been thinking until a high pressure hose had blasted him across the face with ice water. Bit awoke with a sputtering series of coughs, curses and attempts at flailing around less than a second later. He had expected something along the lines of Leena screeching out '**_WAKE UP ALREADY, YA LAZY BUM!_**' while beating him over the head with whichever blunt object was the closest. Or something to that effect.   
  
Instead, he`d found himself staring down at a well polished floor composed of metal tiling. His arms were pinned behind his back on some sort of metal bar with shackles welded to it, resting against the small of his back and the bends of his elbows, with his wrists being left to dangle where they may within a few inches of the bar. He was situated on his knees, hunched over with hands clasping the overshirt he wore to keep him from falling smack on his face.   
  
"This sucks," he managed to half-wheeze out, finally bringing his head upward only to pause.   
  
For the briefest of moments, his reflection on the floor had changed. It had been someone else entirely. Someone shorter and with darker hair, a deeper tan and a red stripe across one cheek. By the time it had changed back, he was able to hear the tail end of someone speaking.   
  
"- pretty damn easy, really."   
  
The first voice was familiar. The second was not.   
  
"You had numerical superiority over an already worn down opponent. Not something to brag about when it still cost you at least half of your own underlings."   
  
"Win`s a win."   
  
The first voice was as ruthless as it was careless, but the second held a tinge of something that only made Bit`s blood boil. He couldn`t have described it even if he had wanted, he just knew that he had an instinctive urge to draw his knife and kill whoever the voice belonged to.   
  
With that notion burning in the back of his thoughts, his neck, which felt like rubber at this point, tightened to the point that it drew his head up in the process. Nostrils flared, teeth were beared in a snarl that seemed downright sub-human and eyes narrowed right along with them as he faced both the man who`d defeated him and the man who`d made that possible. Only belatedly did he even consider the tall, slender figure standing behind the two, inhuman as it was.   
  
For a few seconds after that, there was only a tense, even silence. It dominated virtually everything in every direction, even the woman who`d been working the pressure hose was silent as she started rolling the thing back up and away.   
  
At last, the second man spoke.   
  
"Hello, Bit Cloud. I don`t believe I`ve met you before, have I?" He asked with a voice that was as chilling to Bit`s ears as it was charismatic to everyone else.   
  
"Go fuck yourself," he replied bluntly, causing his handlers to briefly slack their grip, not to mention drawing a series of raised brows and even shocked glances from onlookers. Obviously, they weren`t accustomed to anyone speaking out against the man. Judging from how bland some of their faces looked, Bit probably would`ve wondered if they even _thought_ bad things about him.   
  
"Toldja the lil shrimp hasn`t got any manners," the first fellow pointed out, finally drawing Bit`s eyes back towards him. Almost at the instant they`d made eye contact, Bit`s legs stiffened and straightened, throwing himself forward with teeth gnashing irately. Even if his hands were restrained, he was still intent on tearing the man`s face off. With his teeth, if necessary.   
  
The only response he got was a nonchalant right hook, smacking across his temple and sending him crashing back down with another dull thud.   
  
"Predictable too," the man commented, kicking and prodding Bit across the side of the neck at once with the toe of his boot.   
  
"So I see. He really _does_ have a tendency to go berserk when circumstance allows."   
  
"Berserk? _Pfft_..."   
  
There was a vague snarl off in the distance, and for a moment, the downed pilot knew he should`ve heard something else accompanying it.   
  
"Shoulda seen when he put out David`s eye. Damn near paralyzed `im, too," the first one commented almost amusedly, poking at Bit`s neck a bit more. "Still say we should kill `im now."   
  
"He still has his purpose to serve," the second replied, finally turning around and starting to walk away. "Have him put into a cell, I don`t care which one," he called out, just as the Organoid whipped around and began to jog off after him. In doing so, it drew his attention back to the man who was still poking at him with a boot.   
  
"Cut that shit _out_, _Larry_," he bit out with a sneer, looking up to make eye contact, only to find himself staring into what felt almost like a mirror. Larry always _had_ been the only other member of the family with green eyes. His hair had changed since the last time Bit had seen him though, as had everything else about him by now.   
  
He was only barely recognizable, with scars and track marks visible down the length of his arms, his hair had gotten shorter and its color had changed, his face had gotten longer and the look of carelessness that had once dominated everything about him was now underscored by the glimmer of ruthlessness that belonged more to a hired hitman than any relative of Bit`s. Even his clothes had changed, away from the jeans and t-shirts of old and to a black pilot`s jumpsuit with the sleeves cut off, with dark blue gloves and black combat boots.   
  
"Always were a whiner," Larry Cloud pointed out, poking a bit more boredly now before finally stopping. With that, he took a step back and raised both hands, almost as if framing the look on his younger brother`s face and committing it to memory like a prized photograph.   
  
"When I get my Liger, I`m gonna _kill_ you for this," Bit threatened. He met only a harsh chuckle in reply, just before Larry shook his head and started to walk off.   
  
"Do what the boss said. I`m outta here."   
  
And with that, the two guards who had been letting Bit get humiliated now grappled onto his shoulders, heaved him up to his feet and jerked him to face the opposite direction from where Larry was going.   
  
He had been ready to put up enough fight to take both out, then make a break for it. He had been ready to try and headbutt whichever guard was closest, or even to try and use the bar of his shackles as a weapon, a convenient hammer into either man`s waist. Even after that, he would`ve _still_ been up for trying to kick both men out cold, nevermind the fact that the only real martial arts training he`d ever learned was boxing.   
  
And then, his expression fell as if someone had just slapped him across the forehead with a sledge hammer.   
  
The sight he was treated to was that of the Liger Zero, lying across its side, mouth hanging open at an awkward angle. It was still in the same horrific condition as before, its legs stiffly laid out on the floor and its tail hanging limp, curled downward. The cockpit glass was still shattered, the neck looked broken and to put it bluntly, the once majestic Ultimate X looked as if it was a step above stoning over and dying.   
  
It was enough to crack whatever resolve Bit had left into little pieces, and with that, they dragged him away.   
  
  
_ "God damnit..."   
  
_ "Berserk Fury, come in! Vega? Can you hear me?"   
  
For the sixteenth time, he`d tried, and for the sixteenth time, he`d failed. Static became the only reply, and he was quickly starting to get used to it.   
  
_ "Knew I should`ve bothered getting this thing a freaking pulse guard,"_ he thought with a bit of spite. _"'Oh, but why would we need one of **those** for? Honestly, Lars, you read **far** too many comic books!'"_ He quoted in thought, referencing the views of the Hammerhead II`s original 'commander.'   
  
"Yes, I read so many comic books that I actually knew this piece o` crap was gonna need one someday. Ya dumb bitch," he muttered with as spiteful a tone as he could manage, barely above his own breath. For the seventeenth time, he switched frequencies. Dials were turned, power settings altered and the Hammerhead II rumbled slightly as lightning knifed by from the clouds above.   
  
"Hello? Vega? Anyone?"   
  
Static. Again.   
  
With a dejected groan, Lars Torson finally willed himself away from the comm and flopped back against his seat. A sigh followed, and after that, an ungloved hand came up to finger his glasses back into place for the umpteenth time. From there, he simply stopped bothering and stood back up, making his way over to the pilot`s chair and sitting down, hands failing to find the controls and instead fiddling around with a long empty styrofoam cup.   
  
Thunder churned outside. It was lonely, and the bridge of the transport Zoid wasn`t as well lit as it could`ve been. Every time lightning struck nearby, Lars felt his stomach twist into knots. Everytime thunder rattled the Zoid, he felt his heart skip a beat, and every time a particularly large wave threatened to reach up from the roaring seas below and wash the Foe Hammer to a watery grave, he felt his entire body tense to the point that he couldn`t even breathe.   
  
"I hate this shit," he muttered out to the cup, which naturally didn`t reply. "Everytime we go anywhere, someone jumps off and I don`t see `em again. First Dana, then Kat, and now Vega..."   
  
There was a brief pause as he stared down at the scanners, seeing only a colossal multi-colored blur waving across the top half of the main screen. It had taken close to twenty minutes, but he`d altered the scanners to the point that they could pick up on the Rare Hertz that apparently covered the entire continent.   
  
"And I`m always left waiting for them. Even if I`ll probably never see any of them again."   
  
Again, the cup didn`t respond. Rain briefly pelted the inches thick glass viewscreen that helped seperate and protect the bridge from the elements outside. It was only due to a series of waves smashing together, despite how calm the skies overhead seemed in comparison to the seas below. Lightning and thunder rumbled in the distance, another tidal wave slipped beneath the Foe Hammer`s belly and slapped down onto the shores in plain sight. The outer wall of the Rare Hertz seemed to waver around it, then dissipate out of sight once again.   
  
"Well..."   
  
For a moment, his hands stopped fiddling with the cup, and his boot-clad feet were left to slap across the bare console to his right with an uncharacteristic lack of care.   
  
"I don`t think I can keep this up forever."   
  
The cup finally crumpled in his grasp, leaving a few drips of coffee to drop down across his thigh and stain the pants he was wearing.   
  
A few seconds more ticked by.   
  
A few more after that.   
  
What was left of the cup finally flew over his shoulder and dropped to the ground below. With a deep sigh, the scrawny man stood back up from the pilot`s chair and walked back over to the comm, sitting back down without a word.   
  
For the eighteenth time, Lars Torson switched frequencies and tried again...   
  
  
Cold metal was the only thing in sight. All five of the pistol-sized guns seemed to whir every few seconds, dimming the lights from time to time. It was all polished, small in size and perfectly flat in every direction, not counting the solid metal block sticking out of one of the walls, as well as the sole door in and out. Both were so sharply angled that they could`ve been used for cutting rope if need be. The only thing that wasn`t a right angle of some sort was the light fixture. Even the chains and shackles were rectangles and squares.   
  
_ "It was inevitable."   
  
_** Maybe it was. Either way, there is no denying that it will all end tonight.   
  
**_ "Or begin again. If He`s awakened, Zi`s current rulers are in for a rude awkanening of their own."   
  
_** They are no matter what happens.   
  
** For a few seconds, the only thing that wandered through an otherwise empty mind was the silent visual of a face whose very existence defined the chaos that had broken the back of Eve`s Order. For a long time, it had been a visual that hadn`t been imagined, let alone remembered as it had been experienced so long ago. It was vivid. It was divine, and it was unholy at the same time. It was enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of anyone`s neck.   
  
Almost as if the five hundred pound chains and the shackles that were nearly as heavy weren`t even there, a woman whose life was spent walking on the fine edge of the knife that cut between order and chaos reached up. Fingers tucked away inside thick leather gloves wiped away an errant smudge of soggy ash from around her right eye, exposing a tattoo that resembled a metallic blue scythe blade, with the black shaft connecting to it trailing along the space beneath her eyebrow hair and above her eye socket. A matching one was placed along her left as well, though it was currently concealed by another thin layer of wet ash.   
  
_ "We should have told him what he would be up against. In terms he would understand."   
  
_** If he could not steel himself better from the warning I gave to him, then he got exactly what he deserved.   
  
** A momentary pause. Apathy turned to a bland hint of concern, unseen in the eternally neutral look upon her face.   
  
_ "You`re angry,"_ she observed with a matter-of-fact tone.   
  
_ Yes. I am.   
  
_ Another pause. Then the mental notion of a sigh as the First Born forced himself to calm down a bit. After the genocidal failure of the Endtimes, something in his spirit had broken. Where before it, the ancient Organoid could`ve maintained an awe inspiring rage that could captivate the heavens themselves for days on end, now...   
  
Now he simply cut his losses and dealt with it.   
  
** The test is not over, at least...   
  
**_ "I thought as much. It seems unreasonable to bother cutting it now, when the previous standard had required death. Either that of the enemy, or of the student."   
  
_** ... Someone will die. Of that, I am assured.   
  
** A nod. The cameras almost seemed to twitch at the movement she`d made, but no bullets seemed to be coming.   
  
_ "I just hope that it`s soon. As much as I hate to admit it..."   
  
** You are bored.   
  
**_ "Yes," Madison finally admitted, changing her pose for the first time in two days. Her arms cumbersomely across her chest, her back slouched a small bit against the metal wall and head head tilted forward, with the guns followed her every inch of the way.   
  
"Very bored indeed."   
  
  
** [**_Flares of light, blinding him. Everything in the world seemed to be going into slow motion, and the heat of an explosion near the cockpit was enough to make him wince until the entire side of his face throbbed. Blood spilled from cuts all over his body, yet he willed it to get up, even with shattered glass layered over his lap and sticking out of his body at a half a dozen points._**]**   
  
It was dark. Too dark to see. Dark enough to let the demons of the mind dance through one`s vision.   
  
** [**_Faces, names, the hopes and the dreams of more people than he could ever hope to count flooded through him as the moments ticked by. A gunshot rang through his mind endlessly, as if his thoughts had been geared specifically towards replaying it over and over again. He`d finally hit the breaking point, slammed into the glass ceiling seperating the mind from the god it could become._**]**   
  
It was cold too. Cold enough to numb the senses. Cold enough to reduce one to numbness from reality.   
  
** [**_He`d hit the limit. There could be no going back anymore, it was now or never and there wasn`t any alternative. He knew, in his heart, what was about to happen, and he couldn`t stop it. Their voices, his and hers, both rang through his ears over the static. Others joined, yet he was powerless to listen to them. Only the moment mattered anymore, even she was turning into a distant memory when he`d known her for so long. All of them were._**]**   
  
It was quiet as well. Quiet enough to make one deaf. Quiet enough to hear voices that weren`t even there.   
  
** [**_He wanted so desperately to keep some grip on himself in this last second. To keep himself intact, to hold his soul to his body and never let go. He couldn`t though. It was as if he were having an out of body experience, helpless to do anything but watch and wait for the end. Finally, the moment passed. He saw his chest heave out, taking in one more breath through grit teeth and building upon it. He saw it, but he never felt it. He couldn`t feel his own body, couldn`t hear his own thoughts, couldn`t even hear the static of his name._**]**   
  
Sensory deprivation in its finest, most controlled form.   
  
** [**_His breath, held in to the point that he thought his ribcage might break open, was finally released in a scream so terrifyingly loud that it silenced everything else on the battlefield. The world ground to a halt, guns refused to fire and Zoids held their ground with fear, their pilots trembling._**]**   
  
At last though, it all seemed to break.   
  
** [**_"**IT`S SHOWTIME, ZEKE!!!**"_**]**   
  
The lights cut on and the door flung open on its hinges.   
  
** [**_It would all be over soon..._**]**   
  
The light hurt his eyes, and the door flinging open had made his heart skip another beat. The nonexistent reflection he`d been staring at ceased to exist as the shadows crept away into nothingness, and the cold air finally moved for the first time in he didn`t know how long. The movement of air finally reminded him of how much it hurt to try and move his arms, and of how his head was throbbing from what now felt like an elbow shot from a while ago.   
  
"An` ya still look like hammered shit, bro."   
  
If he`d had the resolve, he would`ve bared his teeth and snarled like a rabid animal at his 'visitor.' The man was flanked by a pair of guards, each of them carrying shotguns and looking quite ready to use them.   
  
"Havin` fun freezin` your ass off?" Larry Cloud asked, casually sipping something or other out of a small cantine. "Should get `em to turn the heat up a bit..."   
  
"I`ll take freezing to death before I accept any help from you," Bit replied with a more lucid, clear tone to his voice than he`d been able to muster at any other time in the past two or even three days.   
  
For a long moment, the two were silent. Larry had dragged in a folding chair though, and was keen on setting it up in the center of the room. It was less than a foot outside of what he guessed was Bit`s maximum reach right now. With that, he sat down, the necklace laying across his chest pointing the marred insignia of the Guardian Force right at Bit`s face.   
  
The guards tensed. Bit tensed. Larry took another swig, then waved his free hand towards the door.   
  
"Just be ready to shoot `im if he tries anything," he said simply, and both of the men gladly stepped out without another word.   
  
More silence. Then came the small talk. Always the small talk.   
  
"What the hell did you do to your hair? And what happened to your arms? And the ring?"   
  
"Dye-job, drugs, more drugs. Booze too, but mostly drugs," Larry answered as if it were the most natural, shameless thing in the world. A casual sip of his drink followed. He genuinely didn`t care about destroying an otherwise priceless family heirloom, passed down to him from Fiona herself on his sixteenth birthday. He didn`t seem to care about a lot of things for that matter, but the ring stood out the most.   
  
"Gonna stop starin` anytime soon?"   
  
"Everyone`s dead," Bit pointed out after a small pause, his voice half-shaken just from saying it. It was the first time he could remember that he`d truly _acknowledged_ the death of his greatest grandmother, and the rest of his family, and feel nothing but an empty pit. No malice, no hatred, no sorrow. Just emptiness. Pure, raw, detached emptiness.   
  
"I know," Larry replied simply. He wasn`t even phased.   
  
"Granny... Mom and Dad... Dave..."   
  
"Talia, Tanya, Tanya`s husband, her twins, Dave`s adopted son..."   
  
Bit`s eyebrow twitched. He`d met his nephew, but he didn`t remember the boy`s name. The kid had looked at him like some sort of godlike hero, and he couldn`t even remember if he`d ever even learned his name. He hadn`t even been informed of his other sister`s marriage, or any births. Not that he was an easy guy to reach during his time as a junker, but still.   
  
"All gone like farts in the wind. Cryin` shame, ain`t it?" Larry asked, still completely unphased by it all. It was like he was almost relieved at speaking about it.   
  
For a few seconds longer, neither spoke.   
  
"How did you know?" He asked with another small twitch. The answer was already blaringly obvious to him. He just needed to hear it, or else he would`ve never believed it.   
  
"Because..."   
  
** [**_"It`s in the Wind Colony. I`ll lead the attack myself, if ya want."   
  
"That would be most... Satisfactory," Vilhelm Rommel replied from behind his desk, wearing a cheshire grin that would`ve put a trickster god of ancient mythology to shame. "The irony alone makes it all worth while."_**]**   
  
"I`m the one who gave up Granny`s location," Larry answered. There was absolutely no regret in his voice. "Even lead the attack."   
  
Bit felt his heart turn from heated muscle and blood to solid ice in an instant. It made his lungs sieze up, caused the pit in his stomach to deepen and his eyes sting as if threatening to water, yet nothing came from them.   
  
"Yeah, numb-nuts. I`m the one who laid out the ambush outside o` town. Woulda personally headed up the assault team on Granny if I hadn`t been busy shootin` Pops in the face."   
  
Ice turned to stone.   
  
"Tyler, I think that was his name? He put up a half-decent fight for a four year old."   
  
Stone began to crack.   
  
"Nothin` a shotgun couldn`t handle. Everyone else got baked. Burned the house down `n` all."   
  
If it were possible for an internal organ to actually break into pieces, Bit would`ve probably felt his heart doing just that.   
  
"Was a bitch cleanin` up the town, but nothin` a good carpet bombin` from a Whale King couldn`t fix. Still dunno why you never showed up though," Larry commented.   
  
** [**_The last Rev Raptor fell, a Strike Laser Claw embedded deeply into its chest. The pilot inside was screaming, begging for mercy no doubt, but the claw simply slit through the Zoid, then tore back out. The pilot was burned to death before he even knew what`d hit him.   
  
Alone, proud and defiant all at once. The Liger Zero stood upon the felled Raptor a second longer, roaring so loudly that the blood literally soaking its fangs began to spray through the air.   
  
He sat alone in the cockpit, staring off at the smoke rising so far away, where he was supposed to be. Where he could`ve saved them.   
  
"****__WHO`S NEXT?!_"   
  
He sat alone in the cockpit, bleeding his soul out and hyperventilating through every second of it.   
  
Sweating. Crying. Laughing.   
  
Bit Cloud had gone so far over the edge that he wouldn`t have even recognized himself in a mirror right now. His own mother wouldn`t`ve been able to either.   
  
For a long second, he wanted to go forward, to massacre everything in his path, and then he felt it.   
  
It was subtle at first, the notion of a gentle tug. He barely even noticed it, until finally it turned into the mental equivelent of a right hook, tilting his eyes to one side against his will. It was just in time to see the beginnings of an evil glow off to the horizon, one that had a trademarked feel he could now recognize even in his sleep. Madness. A homicidal rage so deep that any who bore it were its avatars.   
  
Fate had stepped in, and it pushed him away from one deadly confrontation to another, deciding the outcome of so many future events in but a single split second.**]**   
  
"Why?" Bit asked. It was the only thing he could think to say, now that he`d remembered why he hadn`t just kept going. Why he had managed to show up in time to save Vega Obscura`s life. It had been the result of something he couldn`t explain, if only because he knew it hadn`t been Zeke. It had felt vaguely similar, but it just wasn`t the same.   
  
"Things went straight to Hell after you left," Larry answered bluntly. "Dad finally started takin` shit out on me, `n` I went `n` left. Lived in the streets for a while. Met your ol` bitch too, but she ended up dead by the time I got a Zoid."   
  
There was another twitch. Something spiteful in his gut told him he should`ve felt relief, but he didn`t.   
  
"Went merc. Got good. Went Backdraft. Got better. Joined the Rommel Corp after the Royal Cup an` ended up. Was a test pilot. Think ya can guess the rest."   
  
"You still didn`t give me a fucking _answer_, you _prick_," Bit growled out, managing to find his fire once again. Even if it was only barely intense enough to let him bare his teeth in a snarl that looked almost dog-like, he was at least starting to get himself back together.   
  
"... Cuz I`m a sick evil fuck?" Larry asked with a laugh, just before taking another sip from his cantine. "`Sides, the money`s good."   
  
"Money`s gonna be _useless_ when the fuckin` planet`s gone, you dumbass!" Bit shouted, finally leaning forward off of the wall.   
  
"You think Rommel`s _that_ psycho? The guy`s a bit _loopy_, but he ain`t whacked out _that_ bad. Seriously, Bitty-boy, ya think anyone takes over something like Rommel Corp if they`re absolutely insane?"   
  
"If everyone was like you, hell yes," Bit spat out in reply. It was all starting to come back to him, even if it was only bit by bit.   
  
"This from a guy who charged head-on into a charged particle beam... Twice," Larry muttered with a roll of his eyes. He would`ve taken a sip of his drink once again, made a snide comment and chatted it up some more, but he didn`t quite feel like it after what Bit said next.   
  
"You`re not my brother anymore, Larry," he stated as coldly as his voice would allow.   
  
Another few seconds passed by in silence.   
  
"I know, Bit. I don`t think I ever was," the other replied at last, his own voice as flat and neutral as any human could sound.   
  
After that, he simply stood up. Bit didn`t bother lunging at him. It would`ve been a moot point anyway.   
  
"I doubt Rommel wants anything from ya. I`ll be sure to ask that your execution is just a gunshot to the head," Larry stated simply, just before screwing the cantine shut. With that, he unzipped his flightsuit a bit, reached inside with the hand holding the cantine, dropped it and grabbed something else. "Dunno why he wanted me to do this though," he began, only to draw out something that Bit found familiar instantly.   
  
It was an odd knife. Designed in the rough shape of a Z, with the Republican miltary`s Chaotic Century-era emblem stamped into the base of its blade.   
  
"But he said to leave this thing here for you," Larry finished, setting the Handleblade down on the folding chair and then turning to leave.   
  
For another long moment, Bit heard and said nothing, even as the lights began to dim and the door began to pull shut. It stopped though, with only a crack of light visible in the hallway. With that, the man dubbed Vandal by his employers spoke one last time.   
  
"Good-bye, Bit."   
  
He didn`t reply. Larry waited for a few seconds, but he still didn`t reply. The door shut with a crack of metal against metal, and the lights turned back off all together, leaving him alone with nothing but his own demons all over again.   
  
  
For a long, long time, nothing happened. The skies above roared and tumbled angrily, but no rain came, no snow fell and no ash bombed down from any nearby eruptions. It was so peaceful. So eerie in its beauty that no artwork, no matter how masterfully done, could ever truly match it. The stillness, the tranquility and even the sense of life subtly pulsing into a struggle against death were marked everywhere.   
  
Yet nothing could truly compare to the silent screams of so many dead souls, clustered into one place. So many lives ended, and all of them at once. Some willing, some unwilling, and all before the pillar of a God that had forsaken them as readily as they had turned to it.   
  
It was a view presently left obscured from the downed, lifeless form of the Liger Zero. Its armor was in ruins, its body wasn`t any better, and its former majesty had faded away to some sort of state that sat on the very border between life and death, tilting precariously from one side of that razor-thin edge to the other. It was a saddening sight, to be sure. The very essence of freedom, crushed and broken, then thrown into the middle of a hangar to be picked at by scientists at their liesure.   
  
It brought an air of depression to the stale, scentless air of the hangar, which itself was large enough to be disheartening on its own.   
  
For a long time though, nothing happened. None of the guards turned to regard the fallen Zoid, none of the battered, weary pilots dared to approach it and none of the other Zoids in the hangar had the courage to regard it with more than a sullen glare from time to time, almost as if their would-be executioner had somehow let them all down.   
  
And then, at last, something happened.   
  
It went unnoticed at first, little more than a pale glimmer of light along the beaten down Zoid`s shattered fangs. After that, a brief spark of something ethereal traced itself into existence. Slowly, it flittered through the air, leaving a trail of what looked almost like star dust, forming into a tight circle around the felled Liger`s horrifically damaged body. It reached from tail to snout and back again, three times before fading away all together. The trail it left behind though, remained.   
  
Slowly, it began to glow. Dimly at first, but by the time the guards and the other Zoids finally noticed it, it had become bright enough to outshine a streetlight. A few seconds later, the circle had tinted from solid white to a brilliant mixture of green and gold, pulsing its way up from the polished steel floors. This too went slowly at first, but with every moment, it began to get quicker and quicker, and by the time one of the guards had finally thought to notify the head of security, it had already grown to halfway of what would be its final size.   
  
Several minutes later, as Vilhelm Rommel let out a grim smile to the Organoid known as Spectacle, the initial glimmers had turned into nothing short of a dome-shaped whirlwind of green and golden energy.   
  
At last though, something else happened.   
  
Green optics lit up, and the final countdown began...   
  
  
More darkness, cold and silence. After a while, one had a tendency to just get used to it and go completely numb. Numb enough that thoughts stopped and most instincts shut off. One of them was survival, which would`ve probably come in handy seeing as it would`ve kept him moving, kept him thinking and kept him struggling. Really, three or four hundred pounds of what felt like something akin to solid steel spread out across every limb wouldn`t`ve been enough to keep a person like him down for very long under normal conditions.   
  
Not much could, really. Various people had tried over the years, ranging from police to an unfortunate shop owner who`s daughter had been half past mortified to a particularly psychotic girl with bubblegum pink hair and a few others. Every single one of them had failed, because none of them had been as thorough as his current captors were.   
  
None of them had tried sensory deprivation.   
  
Either way, it was among the farthest topics from his mind, which was finally starting to adapt to the numbing conditions he was in. Every single thought he could try and form found itself forgotten halfway through, and those that weren`t ended up in nothing but a jumble.   
  
Eventually though, something did manage to remain coherent long enough to be spoken.   
  
"How the hell am I gonna get outta this one?"   
  
A few seconds passed by as his own words echoed through his ears. The lack of stimulation was enough to drive most people completely insane by now.   
  
"Gotta be a way..."   
  
Limply, his arms tried to pull themselves free. The only effect his pulling and even heaving had was to rattle the chains that bound him into place, and even that was only just barely.   
  
"If I could just get to the damn _knife_..."   
  
"You may look like him, but I guess you think more like me, huh?"   
  
The rattling ground to a halt. Bit`s left brow twitched slightly, and his eyes almost instantly leered from left to right. Nothing.   
  
"... I guess I`m losin` it..."   
  
This time he heard a vague sigh, somewhat disappointed and somewhat unreadable.   
  
"Okay, maybe you _are_ more like him."   
  
"Falalalala," Bit replied, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to ignore his own hallucinations.   
  
The reply to his attempt at ignorance was what felt like a nonchalant slap across the cheek by a hand partially concealed by a fingerless leather glove, lined with roughly textured rubber that was obviously there to improve grip. After that, he`d heard the sound of metal being lifted from the tin of the folding chair in front of him.   
  
From there, things just became clearer. It was as if a pair of spotlights had been activated, with one focused on him, and another focused on the man now inexplicably standing in front of him.   
  
He was a bit on the short side, even compared to Bit`s relatively average height. He had the same kind of skin as Bit`s own, a bit tanned but still pale, and he was dressed similarly as well in the same kind of odd looking armored shirt that Bit was wearing, though the newcomer wasn`t wearing any sort of t-shirt beneath it. Aside from that, their pants were different as well. Where Bit still wore the same gray fatigue pants with red-stripes down the side that he`d first put on all the way back at Garnhelm, the newcomer wore a pair of tight legged blue jeans with brown leather chaps worn over them, strapped at the thigh. A pair of odd looking flaps hung down from the Chaotic Century-era utility belt around his waist, and it was all topped off, it would seem, by a pair of weathered looking combat boots, the kind that had buckles rather than laces.   
  
"Are you just going to stare at my shoes all day, wondering if you`re insane or not?" The man asked, his hands now fiddling around with the same knife that Bit had been so eager to try and grab a few seconds earlier.   
  
With that, Bit finally looked up from where he`d unwittingly been staring for the past couple of seconds. His cheek still stung from the slap as he watched the man plop down across from him, and then, finally, he saw the man`s face.   
  
It wasn`t really all _that_ different from his own. The ears stuck out a bit more, the eyes were darker and almost more catlike, and the brows were angled more so than his own, but it still wasn`t entirely different. For a long moment, he stared some more, and then he noticed the proverbial icing on the cake.   
  
A red stripe across the left cheek, coming up at an angle from the jaw bone and ending right at the cheek bone.   
  
"Finally figured out who I am, huh?" The man asked.   
  
"... You`ve been _dead_ for over two-hundred years..."   
  
With that, Van Fleiheit slowly but surely let out a grin that sent chills down Bit Cloud`s spine.   
  


_ End Chapter Two  
  
_

* * *

  
  
**Author`s Note:** Kinda meh on the Roc scene, but the rest went off without a hitch for the most part, even if it seems a bit rushed :P  
  
Oh, and a major congratulations goes out to David H. Rogers, as he was officially closer(and faster) than everyone else when it came to guessing the identity of the last Geno pilot o_o *Tosses him a cookie.*  
  
Onto the reviews...  
  
**Rocke:** Congrats >_> And yes, I was trying to do a double mirror. Both Vega and Kale`s big battle plus Bit`s. It was one of the less obvious hints I lobbed at everyone, I hope o_o Now go finish ROC, damn you XD  
  
**Illidan:** Nope, but I`m glad I left ya hangin` on it. Also glad you liked the battle, since it was one of the most fun ones that I`ve ever written o_o Not to mention one of the most violent.  
  
**VegaObscuratheKing:** Yes, I broke loose some Hell for the opening... But I`ve got a whole shitload more to go >_> *Beheh.* And I`m glad that ya liked it, by the way.  
  
**The Big Fisch:** You`ll just have to wait and see, because I`m a bastard! XD Suffice to say, I hope to thoroughly batter any shards of sanity you people have left by the time this one`s over. Just setting the groundwork for now, but soon enough I`ll be unleashing some _real_ AHBL @_@  
  
... And write more Starcraft, damn you. I was all inspired to do a one-shot by your stories and now I need another to finish >_>;  
  
**Akino Ame:** Yay! My writing is better than caffiene XD *Cheers for this. But nods, at Stoning.* Yes, yes it did. Right down to the fact that I visualized the tail coming in like Bonaparte(the Frenchy Megadeus) at the end of Stripes(Big O, episode 20 to folks who didn`t watch the series). The one with Vega was probably the easiest non-Bit part of that entire chapter to write, and as for the Suicide Crew...  
  
Hate to say it, but their role`s probably gonna be diminished for a while. The Hellwalker bit was their grand moment on the stage, but I`ve still got big things planned most of them. [Smith]Everything has a purpose.[/Smith] >_>  
  
**Zinou:** Not much for a while, sadly. They`ll show up though... Count on it o_o And unfortunately for Bit, he seems quite alive right about now. Not to mention the whole 'Hey, I`m sitting down with my long-since-dead-and-many-times-great-grandfather! How ya doin`, Pops?!' thing XD And I`m glad to see the Bill flashback scene went well with ya... That thing was a royal bitch to write x_x  
  
Oh, and how goes t3h 0r1g1n41 f1cc3h? o_O?  
  
**Nyx:** I can do this, actually. I`m quite good at horrifically torturing my readers - very proud of it too. Don`t worry though, after the veins finish bursting in your forehead and your eyes start squirting blood out of your pupils, it`s not so bad...  
  
**Rawtooth:** Sorry dude, Rogers beat ya. And Illidan. By about a month or two, I think. Glad to see you reviewing again, by the way.  
  
**ESSJGohan:** It still surprises(and pleases) me to hear that people are still reading and enjoying the ol` HT series, but I`m also glad you enjoyed NA and ROC. Go give some of my one-shots a read sometime, and while you`re at it, go read Zinou`s stuff too. She`s the shit o_o No joke.  
  
Welp, that`s all folks. Sh33p out and see ya next time.  
  



	3. Day of the Dead

  
  
**Foreword:** Music is as follows. My apologies if the HTML is a bit off - FFN's upload monkeys seem to hate my lately x.x  
  
**Scene One:** Rurouni Kenshin - Destiny's Wheels  
**Scene Two:** Witch Hunter Robin - Open Your Eyes  
**Scene Three:** Witch Hunter Robin - Plot  
**Scene Four:** Hack Sign - Broken Wings  
**Scene Five:**  
Witch Hunter Robin - Plot  
Witch Hunter Robin - Flame  
**Scene Six:** Witch Hunter Robin - Flame  
**Scene Seven:** Witch Hunter Robin - Tactics

* * *

**Tides of Darkness**  
Day of the Dead  
  


There was a flittering series of sparks in the uppermost lefthand corner Bit's sight, followed by a squeek and a small explosion. Bits and pieces of something metallic hit the floor not long after that, issuing sounds along the lines of dropping a fistfull of pennies across a steel table. For a moment, he stared straight ahead in blank curiosity, unable to decide which was more important - the surge of activity nearby or the phantom sitting in front of him.   
  
The phantom in question decided the matter for him.   
  
"It was a Micro-Sworder. They're all one to six inches long, Vega and Specular've been using them to keep track on you for a while now," Van stated with a simple tone, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to point out.   
  
"Vega's been watching me?" Bit asked curiously.   
  
"He's on his way here right now, actually. I like that kid, yanno? Makes me think of myself at that age..."   
  
There was a brief, lingering silence as the two regarded each other. For a split second, Bit felt as if the world almost made sense again, almost as if he could ask anything he wanted and actually get a satisfying answer and-   
  
"No. I can't tell you why it happened and I can't tell you how I got here either. Even the dead don't know everything," Van said with a blunt tone to his voice.   
  
"Then what _do_ you know?" Bit asked, hiding a small inkling of disappointment. On almost any other day, he probably would've had something along the lines of a heart attack and a brain aneurysm. At once. Along with spasms from head to toe. And adrenal shock. All caused by nothing but meeting the man he'd spent much of his early childhood admiring and a good chunk of his career trying to emulate, both consciously and subconsciously, whether he admitted it or not.   
  
"A whole lot more than I can tell you," Van spoke, just before hastily adding to it. "It's just more than I can articulate, that's all."   
  
"... You're over two hundred years old."   
  
"Do you really think someone like _me_ is gonna waste time trying to improve his vocabulary? _Come on_, man. I've spent most of my time watchin' Zoid battles and trying to find ways to cross oceans and rivers 'n' junk," Van shot back in an instant, a bit annoyed.   
  
"Ah. Ghosts can't cross oceans?"   
  
"No, but that just means going under them or hitching a ride somehow. _Anyway_," he said, switching subjects a second later. "There're better things we can spend time talking about than how I got here, and before you ask, I'm here to help."   
  
"How do I get outta here then?" Bit asked skeptically, his feelings reflecting in the slightly soured look on his face.   
  
"Try harder, slacker. Next question," Van answered bluntly, leaning back in the chair a bit. Apparently though, over two hundred years of being dead wasn't enough to take the military rigidness out of his posture. When he'd developed it in life, Bit didn't know, nor did he care to.   
  
"... What the _hell_ is that Rommel jackass doing all the way out here?" He finally asked after a few seconds of thinking it through.   
  
"Putting the finishing touches on a plan that's been in the works since before I died," Van answered with an unusual coldness. "He's out here because it makes things more convenient. While his formerly underlings in the outside world think he's dead, they're starting to go at it with each other, and while they do that, the world's militaries are getting their act together. When it's all said and done, Rommel's former 'employees' will be knocked off and everyone'll have their guard down by the time the real slaughter kicks off."   
  
"The real slaughter?" Bit asked. From what he had managed to find out over the past month or two that he'd been getting dragged from one massacre to the next, Rommel and his people had already toppled most of civilization, including the military.   
  
"The real slaughter begins and ends with Asmodeus. If you don't stop him from waking up the Sleepers, it's all _over_," Van answered with an even colder tone to his voice than before. "That's what you're here for, Bit. No matter what those people are telling you, _that_ is why you're here."   
  
There was a brief, unnerved pause before Bit spoke again. His brow was raised, his voice was lowered, his skin was crawling.   
  
"Why am I here then? How the hell do I stop whatever's supposed to happen?"   
  
"You're here because you're one of five people whose actions will determine the future of this planet. The five of you alone hold the power to change the destiny of the world. Everything that happens, no matter how small or large, effects you, and everything that the five of you do, no matter how good or evil, effects the rest of the world. You've already met the other four, yanno," Van commented, changing the subject yet again as he did so. "You've fought three of them."   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"Think about it. You're almost deadlocked with all three of the ones you've fought, remember?" Van asked a bit amusedly.   
  
For a few seconds, Bit stopped and thought the matter over, then spoke up again.   
  
"Bill Chapman?" He asked. Van nodded, and he guessed another. "Vega Obscura?" Another nod. "Kale Obscura?" Again, another nod. "... Who's the other one?"   
  
"You've met that one too," Van reminded him.   
  
"... Marcus Harlock?" Bit guessed on a wild limb. He _had_ gone to a rather awkwardly fought draw with man, after all.   
  
"Close, but not quite."   
  
"Jack Sisco?"   
  
"Nope."   
  
"Leon Tauros?"   
  
"Not even close."   
  
"Stigma Stoller?"   
  
Van snickered.   
  
"It's him?" Bit asked curiously, wondering why he hadn't thought of the man first. After all, Stigma had been the first person he'd ever really gone to a complete draw with.   
  
"It isn't even a _guy_, Bit. Think harder," Van ordered, still a bit amused at how off the mark the blonde was.   
  
"... It's not even a guy?" Bit repeated, brows raised for a moment before both had furrowed in thought. "Is it a Tasker? That Pierce chick? _Leena_?"   
  
"Close, but no cigar."   
  
There was another pause. Finally, with his eyelid twitching slightly, Bit guessed once again.   
  
"Jamie's girlfriend?"   
  
"Ex-girlfriend, I think," Van corrected him with a small smirk. "Right on the money though."   
  
"... It's a small world, ain't it?" Bit asked with a bland tone, only vaguely surprised.   
  
Odd enough that he'd ended up meeting one of the only solo pilots in Class S, it had been even stranger when it'd turned out to be a fifteen year old girl. His head probably would've fallen right off of his neck if he'd known she was also an Ancient Zoidian. Really, it was so convenient that he almost wanted to punch himself for not figuring it out sooner. If not for the hundreds of pounds weighing down his arms, he probably would have.   
  
"How do I get out of here again?" He asked, hopeful that his childhood hero would have a better answer than before. Instead, Van just looked a bit irritated. He sounded the same way too.   
  
"Try harder."   
  
Mid-day in Champton, and for one woman by the name of Naomi Fluegel, it couldn't have been any more annoying.   
  
_"Lunkheaded nimrod,"_ some part of her mind that was actually coherent managed to sputter out, obviously aimed at the other half of what had once been one of the most respected Class A teams in the Zoid battle leagues. The fact that his hairstyle looked as if he really were a lunkhead didn't exactly diminish the insult.   
  
Her hair was a bit of a mess, what little make-up she wore was either smudged into oblivion or wiped off completely and the outfit she'd been wearing since they had left Romeo City _looked_ as if it was going to start smelling like day old cheese at any second now. Given that she'd been wearing it for more days than her half-asleep mind was willing to count right now, that was probably a good thing.   
  
"C'mon and lie to me," she muttered to the mirror, shortly before cracking a surprisingly loud, body shaking yawn, so forceful that her ribcage felt like it was going to pop at any second. After that, she exhaled what sounded like a miss between a huff and a sigh, then stared at her reflection.   
  
On most days, Naomi liked to think she woke up looking relatively good. When she had one of her old beat-up t-shirts, maybe a pair of boxers she'd conveniently borrowed from Brad and _forgotten_ to give back after they'd conveniently been shrunken down a bit in the washer, with her hair messed up in _just_ the right way, she would've been right. Hell, even without that mixture, she would've still been right.   
  
Today, she would've been rather wrong, because today, she looked like absolute shit.   
  
There were bags under her eyes, slowly fading but still hanging around as if specifically put on her face to annoy the snot out of her. Her hair, normally smooth and silky, was in more knots than any sane human being would've been willing to count. Her skin looked unhealthily pale and the growling from her stomach told her that it was time for lunch. Or brunch. Or whatever it was people in Champton had around this time of day.   
  
What annoyed her the most, however, were her eyes themselves. It wasn't just because of the bags, either. It was because they looked _empty_. There was a gloss over them that made it appear as if she'd been crying in her sleep or something, and the slightly puffy feel of her eyelids didn't help the matter. The fact that they felt raw was just the icing on the cake.   
  
"... Stupid freaking piece of crap," she rambled out at the overly honest mirror. Not for the first time, she felt glad to be the only occupant of the women's locker room, which happened to be connected to the women's shower and rest rooms.   
  
For a few seconds, she stood there, wondering what to do first. She needed to clean herself up all over, needed to brush her teeth and needed to grab a change of clothes. Given the fact that she absolutely _hated_ the taste of just about every toothpaste in existence, it really wasn't that surprising when she'd opted for the shower.   
  
Drawing her shirt up over the head without moving an inch from where she stood, she felt it literally peeling from her skin from the bottom to the cuffs of either wrist and all the way around the neck. At some point, she'd also felt something yanking out of her hair, then heard a clatter on the floor. When she'd balled the shirt up against her stomach, she looked in the mirror to find that the green hairpiece she still wore had been yanked out.   
  
Upon further inspection, so had a few hairs. After that, she'd muttered a bit of profanity under her breath, stepped back and spotted the missing hairpiece, lying under the sink that was mounted on the wall of the same mirror she'd just been using. Without another word, she'd dropped into a nimble crouch, reached out and swiped at it. She missed, inched a bit closer and grabbed it successfully this time. Unfortunately, when she went to stand, her head ended up audibly smacking against the bottom of the sink's countertop.   
  
"_Ow_."   
  
After that, she'd grabbed the countertop, hobbled back a step while still crouched and then flung herself back up to her feet, muttering and swearing under her breath every inch of the way.   
  
"You really _are_ more foul mouthed than you act."   
  
Whatever cussword had been about to come flying out of her mouth at that point, it stopped before the first syllable even formed. A second after that, she managed to start breathing again.   
  
For a long moment, she stood there. The voice had belonged to that of a man. They were in a women's locker room, she had just bumped her head hard enough to leave a soft spot and was currently standing there in only a sports bra and a pair of pants.   
  
In an instant, she reached for the small, easily concealed gun she usually had tucked away in a pants pocket, only to belatedly remember that she'd had to take it out and leave it on the Whale King soon after they'd arrived.   
  
For a few long seconds, she wondered if she was awake enough to properly snap an elbow joint, or if her voice was loud enough to carry through the thick walls of the room. Another part of her even wondered if she was quick enough to shatter the mirror and use one of its fragments as a knife. Regardless, her concerns were eventually put to rest as she heard the voice again.   
  
"You gonna stare at yourself all damn day or what? It's not like this sorta thing happens everytime you oversleep, yanno..."   
  
She recognized it.   
  
"Brad?" She asked, finally turning around and feeling the weight of the world roll off of her shoulders as she did so.   
  
He was standing there as plain as day. His fashion sense seemed to have changed, because he was wearing all black. His shoes were black, his pants were black, his t-shirt shirt was black, his long vest was black - even the weird looking necklace he wore had turned black. His eyes were half-hidden by a pair of black sunglasses, though they still looked about as charming as a devil and twice as roguish as a pirate. Only belatedly did she notice that, in addition to black leather gloves, the bands that had been tattooed onto his upper arms had turned black as well.   
  
"In the flesh. Sorta."   
  
"What the hell kinda helpful ghost are you?"   
  
No answer.   
  
"_Seriously_. You come in here, actin' like you're gonna help me save the world... And then ya just sit there flappin' gums that prob'ly don't even exist!"   
  
A groan.   
  
"You really _are_ more like me. Thomas would've just broken his thumbs and slid out by now. You're just sitting there bitching."   
  
"_And what's that supposed to mean_?!"   
  
"_Try. Harder._ That's the only way you're gonna get outta those chains, Bit," Van said in a voice laced with enough authority to put _Kale_ in his place. Bit's only response was to mutter inaudibly and yank his arms around a bit, causing nothing but the rattling of chains that held no give.   
  
"This isn't as easy as it looks, yanno!" Bit sputtered out after a few more tries. "You could at _least _offer some encouragement!"   
  
"You don't need encouragement, Bit. You've got all the courage you'll ever need, and more on top of that. What you _need_ is to put it to _use_."   
  
For a few moments, there was a pause as the two seemed to size each other up. It ended when Bit spoke up first.   
  
"What plan were you talking about, anyway?" He asked, calming down a bit and shifting his efforts into trying to break his legs free. Just like the ones on his arms, the shackles around his legs held absolutely no give.   
  
"I guess Fiona never told you how I died, did she?" Van asked after a thoughtful pause of his own, spent staring at his own reflection on the Handleblade.   
  
"No," Bit answered simply. He was still wracking his brain, trying to connect all the dots that he could on his own. "What's it got to do with the plan?"   
  
A few seconds ticked by before Van even acknowledged the next question.   
  
"Nothing at all," he answered.   
  
Another pause followed. Van stared at the Handleblade some more and Bit stared at him in return. The hero he had grown up admiring was shrinking to life-size proportions right in front of him, and he couldn't do a thing to stop it from happening.   
  
"Are you gonna tell me about the plan or are you just gonna mope?" Bit asked annoyedly.   
  
Almost immediately, he regretted it.   
  
"_Mope_?" Van asked, eyes slowly lifting up from the blade, narrowing a bit more with every single fraction of an inch that they moved. "_You're_ really one to talk, slacker. At least I'm trying to do something, and I'm already _dead_."   
  
Any other person on Zi would've probably been shaking at the tone in Fleiheit's voice. It was as acidic and venomous as a rattlesnake bite, twice as powerful as the fangs of a lion and easily forceful enough to make anyone else jerk back in their seats on impulse. Bit, on the other hand, sneered with more contempt than he thought and lashed right back out in reply.   
  
"All you're doing is sitting there, rambling like a fucking drunkard and telling me to 'try harder, Bit, try harder!'" He spat, raising his voice a few octaves and screwing his face into one of the most effimately disgusted expressions any human being could manage. "How about doing something _useful_ and telling me what the _fuck_ I can do to get outta these _god damned_ chains an-"   
  
"**_SHUT THE HELL UP!_**" Van screamed out, finally clenching his fists and leaning forward. Instinctively, Bit cowered back a bit without even realizing it.   
  
"Just shut the _hell _up! You haven't got the _right_ to say I'm not doing anything to help you!" He said, only to continue. With every word, Bit sank back a bit more. "I broke half the laws of Death just to come and talk to you! I went under a fucking _ocean_ to see you! You're not even my full-fledged descendent and I'm _still_ trying to help you! _**THAT IS WHAT I MEAN BY TRYING HARDER, YOU FUCKING SLACKER!**_" He screamed again, and once more, Bit sank back. By the time Van spoke again, the blonde had practically curled back against the wall without even realizing it.   
  
"When I tell you to try harder, _Bit Cloud_, I _mean it_. You can break those chains without even thinking about it," Van pointed out irately. "All you have to do is try a _little_ bit _harder _than you are now!"   
  
"_**I'VE BEEN TRYING SO LONG MY ARMS ARE NUMB, JACKASS!**_" Bit finally screamed, seeming to regain some of his courage all over again as he half-lunged forward, only to find himself held back as he did so. He and Fleiheit had been inches short from practically biting each others faces off, until finally...   
  
"**_TRYING?! ALL YOU'VE BEEN DOING IS TUGGING LIKE A DEJECTED BRAT! REAL EFFORT IS WHEN YOU PUT YOUR HEART AND SOUL INTO IT!_**" Van screamed out even louder than before, finally standing up with enough force to kick his chair back a few steps. "_**REAL EFFORT IS WHEN YOU GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT! IT'S WHEN YOU DON'T QUIT NO MATTER HOW HARD THINGS ARE!**_"   
  
There was a pause as he stared down at the blonde, and for a moment, Bit felt as if he were looking into the eyes of an irate drill sergent.   
  
"**_I HAD MY HEAD CUT OFF AND PARADED AROUND IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE BECAUSE OF HOW HARD I TRIED!!!_**" He finally screamed out.   
  
For a few seconds, Bit stared at him, and Van stared right back. The tension between them was like feeling a bow drawn so tightly that it could fling an arrow into low orbit. Both were literally seething like mad dogs at each other. Then something gave.   
  
"What does _that_ have to do with anything?"   
  
Van twitched. Bit tilted his head to the side. At once, both flopped back into their seats, Fleiheit looking annoyed beyond words, Cloud just looking as if something had gone in one ear and out the other.   
  
"If you're the last hope humanity's got, I'm gonna have a lot o' company pretty soon."   
  
"I'm dead."   
  
There had been a sputter, a sinking feeling and finally the uncontrollable urge to sit down before anything worse wanted to make itself known. All that she had asked for was a simple answer as to why his arm bands had turned black. She hadn't asked why he had changed his whole sense of style, let alone how he'd even gotten into the city without her knowledge. It was like someone had just hit her in the back of the knees with a pair of baseball bats.   
  
Sheepishly, he watched as she half-stumbled over to the nearest bench and sat down. She barely even noticed that every aspect of her posture had just slumped, mainly since she was more focused on why she felt so sick all of the sudden.   
  
"You're dead?" She asked. Every single fiber of her wanted to believe otherwise, but at the same time...   
  
At the same time, it actually _felt_ as truthful as his mundane voice sounded.   
  
"Yep. Multiple gunshot wounds, a broken neck, pierced lung and a fractured skull'll do that to ya," he pointed out as matter-of-factly as if nothing had happened at all. Arms gradually slipped up and crossed over his chest, one leg sliding back to help brace himself against one of the lockers as he did so. His eyes were still only half-hidden, and from what Naomi could see of them, they'd gotten six or seven shades darker than they had ever been before.   
  
"Multiple gunshot wounds? Broken neck?"   
  
"And a pierced lung and a fractured skull," he reminded her with something of a self-satisfied smirk.   
  
"... Just... _How_? What the hell happened, Brad?" Naomi managed to demand with what felt like a voice she was rapidly losing control over.   
  
"Guess nobody told you how I left to go keep Jamie from gettin' killed, huh?" Brad asked with an idle tone. "Think that's the third time I snuffed the chance to see you to keep that little shit from gettin' offed... Oh well," he shrugged, then continued. "Long story short: Some psycho fuck in a mutant Geno Saurer almost killed me, I fell into a river and washed up near my old home town. There, I met Jack Sisco, we decided to liberate the town from a few Rommel flunkies who'd gotten outta the base..."   
  
"And you died," Naomi finished somberly.   
  
"Took them all out first, actually. Last ones were holed up in my old church with hostages... So, I defiled the place and killed all of them. Jack was busy shredding Sleepers. I ended up shot through the chest and fell to my death," he explained. "And it was actually pretty painless, aside from the gunshots," he commented as an afterthought, and a slightly absurd one at that.   
  
There was a long pause between the two as she absorbed what he'd told her.   
  
"What's it like?" She finally asked, if for nothing other than morbid curiosity. "Being dead and all..."   
  
"Just like bein' alive, actually," he answered breezily. "It all comes down to what you make of it."   
  
Another pause followed as Naomi absorbed this cryptic bit of information as well. Her stomach was playing Twister and her brain felt as if it had been shut off and on so many times that the autopilot function had burnt out. She couldn't make heads or tails of what she felt and her heart was becoming an increasingly cavernous _pit_ right about now.   
  
"If you're dead... Why did you come to see me?" She asked, finally bringing her head up so that she could look at his face. His expression was as unreadable as his sunglasses, but his voice had a little more emotion to it than she'd expected.   
  
"To put you at ease and give you some closure. It's not every day anyone gets the chance I took... In fact, I don't think it's ever even happened before," he explained, his voice a bit less apathetic than it usually was. "Either way, I'm here now. Not for long, but it'll have to do."   
  
"How much longer do you have then?" She asked.   
  
"Dunno. Do know I met a few o' your ancestors though... It's actually pretty weird how, when you take a step back, _everyone_ is connected in some way," he rambled out in answer.   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"Too long to explain. _Moving along_," he ordered, leaving no room for arguement on the matter. "I also had another reason for coming," he explained with a more thoughtful tone to his voice.   
  
"And what was that?" She asked, lowering her head again as the realization continued to set in. It was hard to believe someone so close to you was dead, especially if they themselves happened to be the ones telling you.   
  
"A warning," he answered with his usual blunt tone once again. With that, he'd straightened up and uncrossed his arms before stepping out in front of her and dropping into a crouch. Given that Brad was about a half a head taller than she was, and given that Naomi was presently slumped down still, this put them near eye level with each other.   
  
"Tonight, things are probably gonna go straight to Hell. If Bit and Vega screw up in Nyx - and knowing _them_, they will - then this place is gonna come under attack. I'm not talkin' a little pansy-assed raid either, Naomi. You'll be dealing with enemies that could stand up to the Liger Zero and the Fury head-on, and there'll probably be a _lot_ of them," he explained.   
  
There was another long pause between the two. Naomi let out a small chuckle.   
  
"So Leon was right. That twit and the kid really _are_ some big factor in the universe," she mused, finally straightening up a bit. Brad stared at her without so much as a grimance or a smirk, only an apathetic look that felt to Naomi as if he were trying to drive the point home.   
  
"I'm _serious_, Naomi. This is gonna be the kinda shit that people learn of in history class. Chances are that a lot o' people are gonna die before sunrise," he stated. His voice had about the same effect as if someone had just pressed an icecube to her ear.   
  
"What's the point then?" She asked. "You make it sound like everyone's gonna die anyway."   
  
"I only gave you a warning. What you do with it is entirely up to you," he replied as matter-of-factly as if giving the weather. With that, he stood up again, tugging one of his gloves a bit tighter before turning towards the doorway.   
  
"I gotta go now anyway," he pointed out. Naomi only nodded a bit, but something went unspoken anyway. It lingered for a few seconds, and as if it were binding him to where he was standing, Brad didn't budge an inch towards the exit. For a long few seconds, the two were equally silent, with Naomi finally looking back up to make eye contact. Brad, acting on an apparent impulse, replied in the only logical way that he could think of. He reached up, then pulled off his sunglasses entirely, folding them up and then tucking them away in his long vest.   
  
"I didn't answer the rest of your question, did I?" He asked knowingly. "The part you didn't ask."   
  
She nodded. Brad let out a sigh and shook his head, muttering something under a breath that he didn't even have.   
  
"I can't say I came here outta love for you, Naomi. I also can't say that I didn't. Whatever we had was at a point where neither of us was gonna be able to make heads or tails of it without some more time together, and my time right here and now wasn't enough to do that," he said, and Naomi felt her shoulders become a bit less taut. "Maybe when we meet again... When you die, we'll be able to finish sorting it all out. Till then, you'll just have to find some way to move on, cuz I don't want you dead yet," he pointed out with a half-smirk.   
  
This time, Naomi returned it.   
  
"Chickenshit."   
  
"Yep," Brad replied simply, just before turning and waltzing off towards the door without so much as a good-bye.   
  
Even if their most recent meeting had been awkward by any stretch of the imagination, she felt better now. It was impossible to properly describe, but something inside of her felt changed somehow. It was like the world had rolled off of her shoulders and the pit in her chest had been filled back up. She didn't know what it was, but she felt different now.   
  
She felt at peace.   
  
With that, Naomi Fluegel let out a long, relaxed sigh and stood up. She was at peace, sure...   
  
But she still hadn't showered in over a week.   
  
"You're not even trying now," Van pointed out dejectedly. Bit simply sneered and wiggled his fingers as quickly as he could, though this wasn't exactly fast enough to even look like real movement at all.   
  
"Try wearin' a couple hundred pounds o' metal on your wrist an' see how it fucks up _your_ circulation," he growled. His arms felt as if they were half-ready to just fall apart, and his shoulders and hands had both gone numb. It wasn't due to the desensitizing effects of the room either, it was because all the weight centered around his hands was starting to take its toll. Circulation was grinding to a halt and his shoulders were fighting a losing battle to keep themselves squared.   
  
"You're still not even trying, Bit," Van countered. He sounded even more disappointed than the blonde felt right about now, and it wasn't exactly helping his confidence. "You're just gonna sit there and wait to die, aren't you?" He asked.   
  
Bit sneered.   
  
"I don't see you jumping to help," he replied with all the understanding of a rattlesnake. "If you were half the hero the books make you out to be-"   
  
"Then you probably wouldn't even exist," Van calmly cut him off. "Or has it never occurred to you just _why_ your great-granny knew so much about me and the others from a firsthand point of view?"   
  
There was yet another grinding pause as Bit literally _felt_ his train of thought derail and crash into a fifty foot thick wall of solid logic. Were he any more desensitized than he already was, he probably would've hallucinated it too.   
  
"What the hell're you talkin' about?" He half-spat.   
  
"... You really _are_ blonde," Van commented with the blandest tone and expression that Bit had ever heard or seen in his entire life. "You're great-grandmother lives over _two-hundred years_ and knows _sooo much_ about the 'great hero,' Van Fleiheit... And yet, you _never_ wonder why she tells you the stories as if she lived them? Why she said she was in the cockpit with me so often?" He asked incredulously. "_Ever_?"   
  
All of a sudden, Bit Cloud was feeling _quite_ stupid.   
  
"You mean..."   
  
"Fucking _duhur_! What the hell kinda _retard_ are you?" Van asked with something that sounded close to annoyance and disbelief at the same time. His language sounded out of character from what Bit knew of him, but in hindsight, he couldn't quite come up with anything to defend himself. Against the background criticisms of his entire family, Fiona's stories, even when Bit believed them, always seemed just a bit too far stretched to be entirely honest. It had always seemed, to him at least, that she told him the stories as though they were part of her past, not because they _were_, but because she'd wished them to be that way.   
  
On more levels than he knew, he was right. On more levels than he hoped otherwise, he was wrong. It all made sense now. Everything _clicked_ into place, and were he paying any attention at all, he probably would've seen Van's eyes reflecting something akin to a small lightbulb over his head.   
  
"Understand now?" Van asked, softer this time. He didn't seem as upset anymore, though he still wasn't the picture of immortal heroism that Bit had once expected. He was a _human being_. Humans make mistakes, and Fiona had always been close to being human even though she was over two centuries old when Bit knew her...   
  
"She was trying to protect me from something," he concluded with a sigh. "I just never made the connection until now..."   
  
"It happens. I probably wouldn't have either before I died," Van replied, his own voice sounding a bit heavier now. Tired in a way.   
  
"What did she lie to me about?" Bit asked, shoulders slumping even more than they already were. Any further and his arms would've probably popped out of the sockets.   
  
"Thomas. Almost everything she lied to you about involves Thomas," Van answered with a tinge of half-bitter honesty. "From her feelings for him to his future. A lot of the things he did and had done to him were omitted from the history books, ya know..."   
  
"Like what?"   
  
"The mass produced Beke thing? A guy named Heinz Weldig copied its basic designs and patented it. Historians like glossing over that. They also like glossing over the Giga Gojulas... And the Red Blade Liger," he pointed out. Bit felt no familiarity with the Gojulas, but his stomach twisted at the mention of a Red Blade Liger. Van knew his question before he even asked it.   
  
"Yes," he stated simply. "The Blade Liger your friend, Leon, has is the same one Thomas piloted. It fought so hard against the Liger Zero because it's still bitter about what happened to it when the Zero was still my own Blade Liger," he explained, only to let out a huff of a laugh before continuing. "That thing's got more issues than both of us put together."   
  
Bit only nodded mutely. With that, Van continued.   
  
"Another thing she lied about, was that Thomas took care of her after I died," he explained, sounding even more bitter than he had before, but also amused at the same time. "He took care of her, alright... He was the second father to our son. Literally," he pointed out, only to continue. "They... Got together right after I died. It was something of a one-night stand... Ruined both of them, but the kid that popped out nine months later..."   
  
He paused, just as he and Bit finally made eye contact for what felt like the first time, even though it wasn't.   
  
"Looked exactly like me with blonde hair, pale skin and green eyes. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" He asked, still as bitterly amused as he had been when he started explaining things.   
  
For a fraction of a second, as they locked stares with each other and Van gave off his ironic little smile, Bit could've sworn he saw an image of himself reflected in his ancestor's eyes.   
  
"Yeah... Now that you mention it," he muttered out.   
  
"So there ya go, Bit. You know most of what she lied about to you... Except for a few other things," he said, pausing for a moment to calm down. After that, he continued.   
  
"Everyone around you... Is tied to everyone who was around me. It's like some sick joke, yanno?" He asked.   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"Descendents, Bit. _Everyone_ around you is somehow connected to everyone who was ever around me. Vega and Kale, and their mother too, are all descendents of Raven," he pointed out. Though Bit wasn't exactly horrendously surprised to find this out, it still made one of his brows arch up.   
  
"Keep going..."   
  
"Naomi Fluegel is a descendent of Irvine and Moonbay. As are four... Well, _three_ of her cousins, now," he pointed out. "Bill Chapman knew Riese personally, as did Leyla Tsun.... And the Tauroses? Leon and Leena are your distant cousins," he added as an afterthought. Again, Bit wasn't really surprised to learn that, though it did explain how he blended in so well with the lot of them. "And then there's the way that Leyon Martin is a distant relative of the guy who tried to assassinate Rudolph at the grand prix... Then there's Pierce and her sister... Direct descendents of the guy who gave Thomas his Dibison. That Harlock guy? Distantly related to Hermann. Likewise with his team mate and Stoller both being distant relatives of the Krueger family, and with Harry Champ's family being related to an offshoot from Rudolph's."   
  
There was a pause as Bit stared at Van.   
  
"Head hurting yet?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"And that's not even a toothpick on the tip of the iceberg," Van sardonically pointed out. "It's fucking crazy how connected everything is."   
  
"Yeah," Bit agreed after a moment or two of hesitation. "It is."   
  
"And do you know what else connects all of the people I just told you about? Every last one of them?"   
  
"What?"   
  
"_You_," Van declared. "You are one of the keys to this whole mess... That little string that's helping to hold everything together. _That_ is why you have to keep trying," he said.   
  
Bit stared at him a while longer, but he was looking right through him as if he weren't even there. Van sensed this, and responded accordingly.   
  
"They're not just nameless faces or faces without a name anymore, are they?" He asked. Bit felt something tingle in the back of his brain, and finally blinked a few times before nodding his agreement.   
  
"Good," Van replied. "Now... Try it one more time. Not for me, but for them."   
  
He could've never explained where it came from, but the urge to take one more shot suddenly seemed to give him more vigor in three seconds than he'd had in months. Without even speaking, he stretched his fingers out and then slowly drew them into a fist. Hands clenched into that position and arms, tired as they were, gradually lifted up until they were bent out at his sides, pointed slightly upward. The chains and the shackles didn't feel so heavy anymore...   
  
"Keep going," Van calmly ordered while standing up.   
  
Before Bit even realized it, there was a metallic _snap_ around his ankles. If he'd been paying enough attention, he would've probably looked down, only to find that it was his bones that had broken. The shackles and chains that once bound his legs and feet were now in pieces.   
  
"You're almost there," Van said while stepping around to the back of the chair.   
  
Gritting his teeth, Bit finally stood up. Where he hadn't noticed the breaking of the leg restraints, all of his focus, concentration and effort was being poured into the ones around his wrists and forearms. As far as he was concerned, it would take _everything_ he had to break the chains that still bound him, and with that in mind, he started to push, pull and struggle forward, arms half-dragging in his wake.   
  
Chainlinks began to bend open, the wrist bindings started to warp and his face turned red from the exertion.   
  
"Just a little more and you'll have it," Van said, looking Bit in the eyes not as some lowly punk who'd fluked through everything for so long, but as an _equal_.   
  
It was the last bit of motivation that he needed. One final pull from each arm, one strained yell that almost hurt his throat to give and a second later, it was all over.   
  
_Snap.   
  
_Chainlinks slung all over the place, the shackles ripped apart and his hands flew out. Instinctively a foot went forward and he caught himself just short of falling over into the chair in front of him, which his eyes now fell to once again.   
  
Carefully, Van set the Handleblade down where he'd been sitting, then straightened up once again. Bit did the same, and for what both knew to be the final time, they looked each other squarely in the eyes.   
  
"Good job," Fleiheit said, and meant it. Bit resisted the urge to smile, even as the blood rushed back into his still half-numbed fingers and toes.   
  
"Kale is coming. He's not the one you need to worry about though."   
  
There was a nod from the blonde. Finally, Van spoke one last time.   
  
"Use it well, Bit Cloud. It's yours now," he said, just before taking a step or two back as Bit's eyes trailed down to the Handleblade, lying on its side in the chair, just as his brother had left it a while ago.   
  
Wordlessly, he reached down and grabbed it, only to look up a second later. Van Fleiheit was gone, and after he realized that, the lights seemed to flicker and die.   
  
A second later, the door opened.   
  
Somewhere in the very bowels of the Dome, tucked away behind eight inch thick titanium walls, a woman was sitting. She was as still as a statue, clad in an odd bodysuit and a tunic, covered in days old grime and bearing the appearance of nothing but sheer disinterest in reality. She wasn't in a desensitized state, and she wasn't meditating. She seemed to be possessed of the patience of a saint, or perhaps it was merely the anticipation of a wild animal about to sink its teeth into an unwitting piece of prey.   
  
Either way, she held the appearance of bland serenity. Eyes were closed, she wasn't mouth-breathing and her arms were still in the same restraints they'd been in for the past number of days.   
  
And then... **He has broken free.   
  
**_"Rommel's probably already setting him up as it is. He's going to need a nudge in the right direction."   
  
_**Is that impatience talking, or a genuine piece of wisdom?** The voices inside of her head asked as one, far less angered than they had been just a few hours before. In fact, there was something that almost seemed excited about them, an emotion that underscored each and every one of the hundreds upon thousands of individual facets that made up the First Born's Voice.   
  
_"Both. I'm bored and we both know that Three is bound to make mistakes along the way. We can't afford them now."   
  
_**Honest as ever**, came the reply, swift and almost upbeat in its tone.   
  
_"Can I finally relieve myself of these paperweights and give him the proper 'nudge' then?"   
  
_**Yes.   
  
**For a few seconds longer, she was as silent as a corpse. Her breathing even came to a halt as each and every one of the guns in the room trained itself onto a different body part. Her heart, lungs, head and stomach.   
  
And then, very slowly, her formerly bowed head began to lift up, thin lips curling into a downright wolfish little smirk that seemed to crack and shatter every single line and shape in the mold of her personality that Bit Cloud knew of. The tattoos that rimmed the outside of either eye socket looked even more like scythes than they had before, and then pinkish-red eyes opened, shifting upward towards the most visible camera - the one directly in front of her. Its gun was still trained on her head. Then, finally...   
  
"_Heh_."   
  
The last thing anyone watching the cell through a monitor would've ever seen was a blur of humanoid movement, shattering restraints, an imploding wall and then blank static.   
  
The Guardian had broken free. There was going to be Hell to pay.   
  
_"That was easy."   
  
_A smug thought, coming from someone who'd only just gotten out of a cell. Wordlessly, he had dispatched both of the guards before they'd even been able to react to his sudden lack of restraints. A haymaker had dealt with one, a solid whack with a blunt section of the Handleblade had wiped out the other. It had all been so fast, even _he_ didn't exactly recognize what he'd done until after it had all happened. Sure, it'd been enough that he could tell what he was doing, but it had still been as if his body had gone on autopilot.   
  
He only belatedly even bothered looking around, finding that his cell had been _very_ poorly guarded, to say the least. There wasn't another guard standing watch anywhere in sight, and there were also none in earshot either. Something told him he would've been trying to dodge bullets right about now if there were.   
  
A second later, alarms started blaring and the hall tinted red accordingly, but as he glanced down to one end of it and readied himself to have to go down fighting, he came to the realization that the people he saw rushing through his sight weren't even acknowledging his existence.   
  
_"Something else must've come up,"_ he thought to himself. Somewhere near the very core of his thoughts, he actually felt a bit disappointed.   
  
A few seconds later, he'd begun running. He had little, if any clue where he was in relation to the hangar, and he didn't much care either. Zeke was still all but mute in his thoughts, and as he rounded a corner into another hallway, something told him that it wouldn't have mattered either way. The Liger hadn't exactly been the ultimate fighting weapon when it came to busting into the place, and in its current state, it was going to be even less so getting out, and that was assuming it could even _move_ by now.   
  
Escape was the last thing on his mind though. The first was finding his would-be teacher, everything else was secondary at best.   
  
With that in mind, he rounded another corner-   
  
_"Shit."   
  
_And almost immediately, he wished he hadn't.   
  
There were three of them. All had guns, all within ten or eleven feet of him, and all of them were going to have to be taken out if he had any hope of surviving this.   
  
Before any of them could even react to his sudden appearance, Bit had ducked down, maintaining his running start and closing in to arms reach. A few gunshots rang out in the meantime, but he barely registered them, or how close they came to hitting him. Once within arms reach, his knife-wielding hand slung up in a cross between a boxing uppercut and a running jump.   
  
The weapon's jagged tip stabbed right through the bottom of the guard's jaw, then crashed straight into the top of his mouth. Before the fellow's cohorts had even realized what was going on, and before Bit himself even remembered he was using a knife, the blonde had ripped his weapon right back out through the man's face, completely shredding both it and his brain in the process.   
  
There was a numb instant where he figured out what had just happened, but before he could think about it, his right leg had snapped out, catching the second guard in the stomach with his knee and then throwing the guy into a wall with enough force to crumple it around his back and shoulders. Another fraction of a second later, the last of the trio was nailed between the eyes with Bit's left hand, balled into a fist. The woman didn't even scream. Instead, she just flew back, her helmet cracking like a walnut against the alloy walls. Her neck snapped in the crash and her body slumped to the ground instantly.   
  
And that was when the reality of death finally hit Bit Cloud's conscious mind.   
  
Murder in a Zoid was one thing. It was always detached when you killed someone and couldn't see their face as it happened. It was also detached even when you could, for the simple reason that there was still the barrier of a Zoid cockpit sitting between you and reality.   
  
Murder by one's own hand was another thing all together. There were no more barriers to protect him what he'd just done. No detachment, and no personal enmity to justify it. The three of them had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.   
  
He had nothing to say though. No apology would've been sincere enough and any amount of rationalization or plain logic would've theoretically been enough to stem any guilt he felt from it. In spite of that though, he had something else to fight the guilt off with: His mission.   
  
_"Time to bring the house down,"_ he thought resolutely, just before taking off into a run, bloody Handleblade in hand. A second later, even his shadow had vanished into the red-lit corridor, leaving behind only three broken bodies in his wake.   
  
__

End Chapter Three

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hrf... Not entirely satisfied with how this one turned out, but oh well .;  
  
The bit about Mark being distantly related to Hermann is also quite accurate - the closest relation he has to the guy is an ancestor who was a second or third cousin. Likewise with how Stigma and Kyle are related to the Kreuger family.  
  
And if you're wondering: No. Bit and Naomi weren't the only ones who spoke to the dead in this chapter, but they were the only ones where it really mattered more than anything else. Naomi had been ignored up until now even worse than Brad was prior to when I killed him off, and she needed the closure. Bit just needed the kick in the ass. Also, if you haven't noticed, it's entirely up to you as to whether or not they _really_ spoke to the dead. Remember that Bit was in a sensory deprivation-type prison cell and Naomi had just knocked the hell out of her head...  
  
But how did that ghostly Rev Raptor save Mark, hm? And more importantly, what connection did it have with all the ghosties in this chapter?  
  
I'll never tell :p  
  
**Illidan:** I think we agreed on no more poetry in reviews after this XD Still, thanks for the review and stuff .  
  
**Akino Ame:** Hopefully I managed to keep Van true to his character(sans the whole 'Hi, I'm dead! :D' thing). And don't worry... Some _major_ Hell is going to be breaking loose sometime fairly soon, if I'm lucky enough to hold to my mental layout for everything o.o And sorry about the computer/internet problems x.x I know how that goes. Twitch.  
  
**Father Malvado:** Anyone can take their time to the point of absurdity and still feel rushed about something. It happens :P  
  
And I have more cliffhangers planned. Best get to confession, cuz you'll be cursin' my ass off by the time this is all over XD  
  
**Rawtooth:** The confusion could probably be fixed if I bothered using four BR lines instead of three but... Meh. Lazy.  
  
**Fisch:** FINISH YOUR DAMNED STORY OR I'LL EAT YOUR SOUL! Lightning/Thunder effect.  
  
That said, thanks for the review and the knowledge that I've helped destroy your sanity, though Starbucks would've undoubtedly taken it from you anyway... You poor bastard o.o  
  
**VegaObscuratheKing:** Yes, yes I am psychotic o.o And since I already screamed at Fisch, best to not be exclusionary... WRITE YOUR DAMNED STORY OR I'LL EAT YOUR SOUL! Lightning/Thunder effect.  
  
**ESSJ Gohan:** Ah o.o Damn, I seriously didn't think anyone read that stuff anymore. And trust me, you'll like Zinou's stuff .  
  
**Kegger007:** Glad you've enjoyed it so far, though the fact that the plot has been unpredictable is probably just the result of me writing like a rambling drunkard half the time XD  
  
**Engar:** YES! THAT VIDEO! O.O It is t3h 03n4g3! And if you like epic series-type fics, go read Zinou's stuff o.o Doesn't get much more epic than that.  
  
Oh, and a minor Edit Note of Doom: In NA, Fiona originally said it was her daughter, Maria, that Thomas helped look after .; Suffice to say, I edited things. I also switched symbols since FFN keeps eating my s and s. Meh.  
  
Sh33p out, yo.


	4. The Face of the Enemy

Foreword: Beware the upload monkeys. Music is as follows.   
  
**Scenes One to Three:** Don Davis - Tetsujin  
**Scene Four:** .hackSign - Fake Wings(Bittersweet Version)  
**Scene Five:**  
Rurouni Kenshin - The Duel  
Zoids - Any End of the Land  
Rurouni Kenshin - The Last Wolf Suite(3:25 to the end)  
Zoids - Zoid Eve's Theme  
  
In that order.

* * *

**Tides of Darkness  
**The Face of the Enemy

There was a crack and a spurt of blood. Movements that were so fast there was no thought behind them had become the norm, and as it had been just a few seconds earlier, he'd had no idea what he was doing until he'd been done with it. By then, six people were more or less laid out in a room that seemed to connect three different corridors to each other. None of them had managed to do more than scream and try getting out their weapon to fire, and those that'd actually pulled the trigger had only ended up shooting the floor, their own feet or the ceiling. The last one had only just hit the floor with his nose completely broken and several of his upper teeth missing.   
  
At least one of them was also dead.   
  
Belatedly, Bit noted that it was somewhat easier to disassociate himself completely and bury the guilt of what he'd done for the time being. Were he half as wise about his own emotions as some people, he probably would've realized that this was the single worst thing he could do in the long run, but for now, it made sense. That was all that really mattered, wasn't it?   
  
_"Which way now?"_ He asked himself, looking down the two new corridors that this room exited to. As if solely to answer him, a scream echoed down the red-lit corridor to his left, marked off as Cell Block A. It was underscored by what sounded like shattering body armor and imploding alloy, with the latter being the more recognizable of the two.   
  
Going purely on instinct, the blonde turned down the corridor as quickly as his legs could carry him, the still bloodied Handleblade slinging drops of red this way and that with every step he took.   
  
Barely a second later, his feet ground to an unnatural, almost skidding halt on the metal floors. To summarize it all in the shortest description possible, it was at once the single most horrific, and one of the most impressive sights he had ever been treated to in his life. It was also enough to completely shatter his entire train of thought and stop him in his tracks with enough force that he almost felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach.   
  
"What the _fuck_?"   
  
There were bodies strewn all over the place - and more than a few of them were holding the mangled remains of their guns. Some had been hit with enough force that their bodies had crumpled like tin cans into the nearest wall, leaving behind visible imprints in their way, while others had simply been dropped where they stood. Heads were imploded, bodies were scorched and smoking as if fried by enough electricity to short circuit a Gojulas and more than a few severed limbs happened to be lying around a few feet from their original owners, looking not as if they'd been cut, but as if they'd literally been _smashed_ right off of the bodies that had once belonged to them.   
  
Blood was splattered everywhere, harshly visible even with the flashing red lights that caused shadows to dance around everything once every few seconds, yet with an almost morbid sense of calm and serenity, there she stood. The woman he'd thought he would have to save, a woman now so drenched in blood that she was nonchalantly wringing it out of the thick, hellishly tough mane of hair that happened to grow out of her scalp as if it were the single most natural thing in the world. Her club, gigantic and looming even now, was covered with congealing crust that looked as if it had been flash fried repeatedly, and its handle was resting almost weightlessly against the side of her leg.   
  
Suffice to say, Bit Cloud looked as if he were a human trainwreck right about now.   
  
"I got bored waiting for you," Madison answered him without even bothering to acknowledge his arrival. With that, she'd let her hair drop back into place on her back, then grabbed the club with one hand before swinging it up onto her shoulder.   
  
"You... Got _bored_? **_I THOUGHT YOU WERE HALF-DEAD BY NOW!_**" Bit sputtered out into a scream, brows furrowed to the point that the ridge of his nose had vanished.   
  
"I could've escaped at any time I felt like it," she replied simply, and only then did he notice several more things. "I was simply waiting on you."   
  
The first was that there were a series of holes lined up from one wall to another, the second wall had a pair of doors that had been ripped or smashed open and Madison, for the first time since Bit had met her, actually looked as if she were enjoying herself to some small extent. Not only _that_, but she wasn't half-covered in the shit-like grime that had, until recently, been blown about all over Nyx as if it were going out of style. This allowed him, even in the shadows and the red light, to make out the two tattoos on her face, and even if he'd wanted to comment on them, she didn't give him the chance.   
  
"The test isn't over yet," she stated, seeming to slide back into the apathetic demeanor that had personified her for most of the time she and Bit had known one another.   
  
"How do I complete it then?" Bit asked without even thinking. It was a nice change from the past months, where all he could _do_ was sit and think.   
  
"The hangar's that way," Madison answered, pointing back behind him and in the same direction as the second corridor. "The rest is entirely up to you."   
  
There was a tense pause as he stared at her. She was as cryptic as ever, explaining everything without ever giving up even the slightest of details. If not for the sudden sounds of pounding footsteps in large numbers at either end of their particular hallway, he probably would've cussed her out right about now. As it stood though...   
  
"I'm going back to Roc. Good luck," she stated simply, just before running at him without another word.   
  
It was all that he could do to sidestep her without tripping on a corpse, and just as he did so, both ends of the corridor filled with bodies.   
  
A second later, five of them were smashed into a single wall by one sweep of the club, and if any had survived the blow, Madison had finished them off in an instant as the weapon lit up like the Fourth of July. Electricity surged all over the thing like neon blue lightning, missing only the handle promptly frying all five of the people before they could even start screaming. By the time that Bit had even realized what his teacher had done, she yanked the club loose and all but smashed the face off of someone with an upward sweep of it, just as all five of her last victims had fallen to the floor, smoking and looking as if they'd just been overcooked in an instant.   
  
Instinct kicked in from there. His free fingers latched onto the bottom of the Handleblade's hilt and yanked out a weighted tip of some kind, attached to a length of flexible wire. From there, he had blindly thrown the weapon into the second group that was coming from the other end of the corridor.   
  
The Handleblade's tip stabbed someone in the collar, Bit gave a hard yank and then the world turned into one hellish, red blur, punctuated by gunfire and screaming. By the time it was all over, bodies were everywhere, and how many of them he had personally killed, he couldn't guess. The only thing that seemed to bring him back to his senses was the sudden sound of imploding metal in the room he'd just come from, along with the fact that no one else in sight was still standing.   
  
Moans of pain filled his ears, but he scarcely bothered regarding them. Instead, he turned around and ran, the Handleblade having somehow found its way back into his grip as he did so.   
  
A second later, he was back in the room, and treated to the sight of its outermost wall ripped wide open, with the fleeting view of a speck of human-sized movement on the ground, hundreds of feet below and probably the better part of a mile away.   
  
"This is insane," he mumbled to himself, feeling as though the whole world had just been thrown into a strait jacket and kicked into a padded room.   
  
He barely had the presence of mind to reach up with one bloody glove and use the inside collar of his shirt to wipe the blood off of his own face. He didn't know whether or not any of it was his, and he didn't care even if it was.   
  
_"I've given him the 'nudge,'"_ She had managed to think out after ripping the wall open. It hadn't taken very much effort, especially not with her club, but even if it had, she couldn't help but feel the nagging suspicion that the Acolyte had intended her to escape like that all along.   
  
**Good. I take it you are on your way back now?   
  
**_"As much as I'd rather stay and work out some of my frustrations..."   
  
_Feet hit a mixture of snow, ash, mixed grime and dirt, all of it heated to the point that a human would've been nervous just to be near it. In Madison's case, she landed in a perfect crouch, club held out in front of her. It had been a six or seven hundred foot drop right into the stomach of Hell, and she didn't even look as if it had effected her at all.   
  
Wordlessly, she stood up and brushed herself off, craning her head to look back at the countless Zoids still strewn about from the battle that had taken place just hours before. A few had just been missed during the pick-ups by the repair and salvage crews, but a good many were little more than stone cold corpses that happened to weigh around fifty or a hundred tons. Most were also starting to melt from the hundreds of narrow rivers of magma that still flooded around the area under the Dome like a glowing orange and red spiderweb.   
  
_"I'm on my way. Wait for me," _she half-ordered, half-requested, though the tone of her thoughts would've never revealed it to someone who didn't know her as well as Roc did.   
  
For a few seconds longer, she lingered, staring at what seemed like the face of death itself before finally taking off into a run as quickly as her legs could carry her. By the time that Bit had looked out to see what had happened, she was little more than a barely visible speck, dragging her club through the air and running with enough speed to outpace some Zoids.   
  
_"Damn it," _he thought as a stream of bullets whipped by his right ear, hit a wall, pinged off and narrowly missed his left leg on the way back down. The corridor that Madison had directed him to had become little more than a blur of movement, gunshots and screaming over the past two minutes it had been since the Guardian had left him, and it was all starting to become slightly repetitive. It was mind numbing too, he hadn't felt a thing for all the deaths that he had already caused, and some mental defense mechanism was probably going to keep it that way for quite a while at this rate.   
  
"**_GET THE HELL OUTTA THE WAY, YOU JACKASSES!_**"   
  
It was only barely audible over the howling gunfire and the agonized screaming, but at least a _few_ people seemed to get the gist of the message. Four of them dove down into another corridor and a fifth simply threw himself up against a wall after dropping his weapon, but for every one of them who stopped, three more seemed to pop up.   
  
It was actually quite infuriating.   
  
The smoke-filled hellzone they were fighting in had also changed, mainly because the corridor that Madison had pointed out seemed shorter than most. It had lead to a reasonably large room though, serving as what appeared to be a junction between three elevators, three corridors and a maintenance hatch or two. There'd been a few people sitting watch at a desk, but they were dead by now.   
  
Belatedly, Bit had noticed that same desk, and was now in the process of trying to get to it.   
  
A Handleblade haymaker helped clear his path, another stream of gunfire slipped by the back of his head and his unarmed hand instinctively shot out to the side. Barely an eighth of a second later, someone's faceplate shattered and Bit's ears failed to register the sounds of breaking cartilage and bone. Blood splattered across his already soaked glove and someone fell over in pain, but by then, he had become airborn with a single jump that carried him all the way across the room.   
  
He landed awkwardly and with a skid on the surface of the desk, with blood soaked papers flying everywhere and being shredded within seconds by more bullets. He was starting to wonder when the hell _any_ of these guys would actually run out of ammo, but the notion was kicked aside when his skid carried him right off the desk. He landed in some poor dead twit's lap in a crouch, with both their weight supported by a computer chair that promptly spun around and threw both him and the dead body into the nearest wall.   
  
It was probably for the better, considering that the upper half of the chair ceased to exist another half a second later. Being shot by thirteen assault weapons at once was enough to do that.   
  
_"This is gettin' real old, real fast,"_ he managed to half-sputter out in thought, grappling his free hand onto the dead body's shoulder, then using the other for added leverage. At the same time, his legs curled inward, trying to tuck up under his body and then-   
  
The gunfire stopped.   
  
His heart raced, and the sounds of clips being pulled out of their respective guns could be heard as footsteps clattered and echoed this way and that, pulling back from the desk. He only had a few seconds, at best, before the lot of them started firing again, and he used it as best he could. By the time the clicks and smacks stopped, Bit had gotten into a crouch, holding the dead body in the same way as before, but keeping one of his own shoulders braced against the underside of the desk.   
  
There were no offers or demands for surrender on either side. His ears, sore as they were at this point, distinctly registered the sounds of shoulder straps falling away and guns being raised, yet before any bullets could come, he acted.   
  
"**_BANG!!!_**" He screamed, at the exact same instant that he'd heaved the body towards the furthest wall and thrown himself up to his feet, his shoulder causing the desk to flip up off of the floor and violently sling up into the air from how hard he'd done so. It was the equivelent of trying to turn one's own body into a flashbang grenade, disorienting his would-be attackers with a flurry of movement and sound.   
  
For the most part, it worked. The body he'd thrown ended up being ventilated in mid-air, while the desk and scream simply caused several of the troops to not even open fire.   
  
Before any of the gunmen could recover from what he'd started, Bit blindly reached out with his free hand and grabbed what was left of the chair from beside him. Almost instantly, he slung it out at the group of men and women by an armrest.   
  
The world became a blur all over again as about half of the group fell or got pulled down by people who were hit by the chair, and by the time any of them could recover from _that_, Bit had run up over the desk and jumped across the room, landing with a hard thud with his feet on someone's chest. The unlucky trooper went down, Bit stood up on top of him and, in one simultaneous whirlwind of movement, kicked his face in through the visor, used the Handleblade to rip out the throat of his nearest compatriot and then grabbed the dying woman's gun with his free hand. With that, he'd yanked it free, somehow managed to get a grip on its handle and started shooting.   
  
Barely five seconds later, it was all over. Aside from those that had run out earlier, there weren't any survivors at all.   
  
The world slowed down once more, and Bit stumbled forward towards the nearest wall, propping himself up on his knife-wielding arm while dropping the gun limply to the floor. His heart felt like it was about to explode in his chest, his throat felt like it might start bleeding from the inside from how dry it was and his lungs felt like vacuums. Aside from that, the rest of his body was just _hurting_ right now, mostly from the strain of trying to keep up the pace he had been maintaining for the past minutes, but also from at least a few minor injuries he'd taken along the way...   
  
Belatedly, he noticed that his neck was bleeding from where a bullet had cut through the skin but somehow missed the vitals. It was the same case with about a half a dozen more such wounds, scattered across his body as if the bullets themselves had literally _avoided_ hitting anything important.   
  
"'Hangar's that way,' _my ass_," he sputtered out between heaving gasps for air and the occasional gag, caused mainly by the fact that the mingling scents of a few dozen gallons of human blood and enough gunsmoke to fog the air was enough to make _anyone_ a little sick.   
  
A second or two ticked by in relieved, exhausted silence, and then, he registered the distant clatter of more incoming security forces. His face twisted in disgust, and a low groan of annoyance finally escaped him as he leaned a bit more heavily on the wall, his head rested against his forearm. The footsteps came closer and finally, the look of annoyance faded to one of resignation.   
  
His arm straightened out and his body limply turned to face the furthest corridor. He could see warped shadows coming in the red light, swirling across the floors like spilled oil. No doubt this batch was coming with as much heavy duty firepower as the last, and no doubt they would have the advantage since there were probably two more groups coming from opposite corridors. He was cornered.   
  
"Looks like they're gonna parade my head too," he muttered out, slumping back against the wall for just one more moment's rest. It felt like he'd run three marathons through the desert by now, and he needed every moment he could get to slow down, even if it wasn't long enough to do more than feel himself hurting all over.   
  
The shadows lead to full on outlines, and then there were a series of telltale thunks. They were sounds that Bit recognized as being grenades of some sort, then-   
  
_"Tear gas. Looks like they're gonna try and choke me out,"_ he mused.   
  
Gas began to flood the room, Bit held his breath and remained where he was, slumped against the wall still. Masses of people began to flood into the corridors, no longer hidden from sight and that...   
  
Was when the elevator doors he was leaned on slipped open.   
  
Without even realizing what had happened, Bit stumbled backwards into the elevator, having forgotten that there were three of them and having failed to realize that he had been leaned against one, its detail more than slightly obscured by the fact that it'd been covered in as many scorch marks, blood stains and bullet holes as anything else in the room. From there though, even as he fell over and scrambled to get back up, the elevator doors slammed shut. He could distinctly register the sounds of bullets pinging off of them, even a few that managed to find there way through the half-dozen holes in the doors, and then, it was all replaced by the dull hum of the elevator's motor and the sensation of going up at a slight angle.   
  
"... What the hell?"   
  
It was all he could think to say as he stood up, wary to check for any concealed guns or explosives - even checking for an escape hatch of some kind. There was nothing though, and after a seconds longer, he checked the small console that elevators had to choose floors from.   
  
The only button that was glowing was the one that said Observation Deck. Whatever that meant, Bit didn't know, but he had a feeling that he wasn't going to like it.   
  
"Harry?" A grating, high-pitched voice asked, its tone as irritating as it was inhuman.   
  
"What's wrong?" Harry Champ asked with a slightly exhausted tone of voice, sitting somewhere between uncontainable glee and bland depression. It had been odd to be in his shoes, as of late... Especially without the platforms to make him appear taller than he actually was. In fact, it was downright strange to actually feel the ground beneath his feet again.   
  
"Oh? Nothing, sir... Nothing's wrong at all, I was just... Err... Worried about you since you haven't been answering your calls an-" "Leena threw my comm into the microwave," Harry casually interrupted him, thumbing over his shoulder without so much as a backward glance. It was obvious by his lack of emotion over the thing that he hadn't exactly _cared_ for it too much. An over glorified military-level cell phone with a fancy name didn't hold much meaning to him these days, even if it cost more money than most people saw in a month.   
  
"Oh... I see," Sebastian replied a bit blankly.   
  
"Real firecracker, isn't she?" He asked with a slightly whistful tone.   
  
"... Yes, yes of course..."   
  
There was a shortlived pause as Harry finally stepped back from where he'd been staring out of the window and turned to face the pudgy looking service robot that had been one of his two best friends for the past year or so, whether he'd ever admitted it to anyone or not.   
  
"Is there anything you came to tell me?" He asked, idly remembering to pull his pants up. He still hadn't put another shirt on.   
  
"Yes, actually," Sebastian answered. "That Sarah woman said she'd like to see you... Something about bolstering defenses or some such."   
  
"Figured," Harry replied, motioning for the robot to shut the door. Sebastian did so without a sound, while a figure draped in half-moist bed sheets squirmed around a bit irritably in her sleep nearby. Sebastian would probably gossip about it to Benjamin or something, but at this point, Harry had more important things to worry about.   
  
"... Am I missing something here?" Sebastian finally asked, utterly oblivious to what the girl in the bed meant.   
  
"Huh?"   
  
"Well, it just seems like _everyone_ has had something odd happen to them today... I haven't seen _one person_ who doesn't look like they've done... Err... Whatever it would take to make you humans freak out so bad," the robot stammered out, somewhat annoyed. Harry cut it a bit of slack for once.   
  
_"Perhaps," _he thought, _"machines can't see the dead." _  
  
And with that notion buzzing around between his ears, the heir to the Champ Corporation's vast wealth and resources - and one of the only remaining world leaders of _any_ prominence in the neutral territories - waltzed across the room and yanked open the dresser. All that he saw were rows upon rows of yellow jackets with lengths of string and ribbons hanging off the sleeves, frilly-pinky-fashion-disaster t-shirts, the occasional green t-shirt with Leena's chibified face emblazened on it, the old orange jacket with the mutant yellow trim and enough pairs of chaps, sets of codpieces and plain black spandex pants to make a male stripper weep...   
  
Granted the codpieces had at least served a purpose. Leena was fairly well known in the old days for being able to punt someone's balls into their throat.   
  
Harry knew as much from personal experience. Hence the reason said speedoesque codpieces were also armored.   
  
That didn't change the fact that it was like staring into someone else's closet nowadays, though.   
  
"See if you can't order me up some new jeans... And a long sleeved green shirt. With a Gun Sniper and an Iron Kong on it," he murmured out, though Sebastian caught every single word of it.   
  
With that, Harry Champ randomly picked one of the old yellow jackets and yanked off its hangar. A few seconds later, he'd stopped to stare at the old ribbons on it. Originally, it had just been something he thought looked cool, but now...   
  
Now, he needed something that made him look _strong_. People needed leaders, not sleep deprived little worms with ribbons dangling from their sleeves. Without a second thought after that, he proceeded in ripping off each and every single ribbon. Given that the jacket was a particularly tough brand of leather, nothing but the ribbons themselves actually ripped away. Once that was done, he reached in and blindly fumbled around before grabbing a pink shirt and throwing it on over his head.   
  
The jacket followed suit, then the pajama pants were thrown away in favor of a worn pair of brown slacks that looked as if they hadn't been thoroughly washed in a week. After that, he had gone back to the couch, grabbed his socks and sneakers, then crammed his feet into them and tied the laces before finally standing up once more and straightening himself out.   
  
He _had_ been staring out at the parts of the city and the countryside that his apartment-like room gave him a view too. He _had_ been mulling over a particularly awkward conversation that had ended in a warning that he would probably never forget, and he _had_ been trying to bask in the afterglow an hour or three after the fact, but it was over now.   
  
Meaningfully, he cast a sidelong glance towards the bed and the young woman in it, and then...   
  
_"Sleep good, my sweet..."   
  
_Harry Champ the lover, poet and philosopher crawled back into his little hole in the ground and died once again. Harry Champ the leader and protector had re-emerged from the shadows to guide the largest remaining neutral city through what was probably going to be its darkest night.   
  
"I'd like you to stay here, Sebastian," he ordered as an afterthought while heading for the door. The robot, despite lacking a face, looked taken aback.   
  
"_Why_?"   
  
"For her sake," Harry answered bluntly as a pillow fell out of the bed and the girl responsible babbled about blowing things up in her sleep.   
  
"... _Oh_. Okay. Whaddaya want me to tell her?" Sebastian asked somewhat tersely, almost twitching out of his way as Harry got to the door.   
  
"That I'll be in my office or the war room, and that she'll need to be ready to pilot a Zoid before nightfall."   
  
And with that, Harry pulled the door open and stepped out without another word.   
  
The elevator slowed to a stop and the lights dimmed for a moment. There was a pinging sound and Bit felt his insides shifting around while straightening up. Logically speaking, it would've made the most sense to try and duck to one of the elevator walls, maybe use the Handleblade to cling to the ceiling somehow or just crouch down and lunge forward, but logic was like a language that Bit didn't know how to speak right now.   
  
Instincts were his guides and he followed them no matter what that meant doing.   
  
It felt like slow motion as the doors slid open, clearing away to reveal a normally lit hallway lined with computer monitors and equipment that was probably meant to keep track of the once ever-changing state of Nyx. Without a word, he tightened his grip on the knife and stepped forward with an unintended limp from his own exhaustion. It turned out that the hallway was another junction, connecting to another two at right angles - one directly to Bit's right, the other in front of him. Everything seemed empty.   
  
As soundlessly as he could manage, Bit started to walk forward in something of a daze, feeling blood dripping from his clothes and skin by what felt like the bucket load.   
  
_"Doesn't seem to be anyone up here at all," _he mused, continuing forward down the hallway at a less-than-relaxed pace, his knife still clutched so tightly that it almost hurt.   
  
A few seconds into this walk however, the doors that had been on either side of the elevator he'd come through split open. Without even looking back, he knew what was coming and he'd started running. His legs throbbed, gunfire rang out and bullets started pinging off of everything around him, but he kept going. His entire body seemed to curve forward until he looked as if he were running up a wall, and if nothing else, this kept his head from being blown right off of his shoulders as a result.   
  
Four seconds into this, he had hit the end of the first hallway and bolted down the next to his right, hearing what sounded like a close-quarters grenade being fired and hitting the wall behind him. The explosion was small, there wasn't any shrapnel and he didn't pay it anymore mind. Slowly though, he started to notice that the floor was slanting upward a bit, and the walls were curling as if he were racing down a track. Finally, he came to another straight-away, then slowed to a stop as he looked around.   
  
No one in sight once again. It was just another well lit corridor with polished looking metal walls and only a single door at one side. Without another word, and with only his instincts to keep him going, the blonde started walking again. Slowly but surely, he came to the door. He'd expected it to be locked or guarded by some sort of security system, but instead, it opened almost as if it were automatic.   
  
_"I don't like this,"_ he thought, finding a middle ground between instinct and reasoning as he stepped through the doorway.   
  
The door shut and locked behind him without the slightest notion of a touch. With that exit now out of the question, he looked around, only to find that the room he was in was little more than a glassteel-enclosed mesh of metal support bars and stairs. The floor was made of a smoothly polished concrete, the room itself was perfectly squared and a staircase that started in front of him angled sharply up each wall, all the way out of sight from where he was at its start. Barring the door he'd just come in through, he had a relatively clear view of every feature of the terrain around him, from the churning stormclouds that hung above to the barren wasteland that now looked so much like a continent-wide graveyard without tombstones.   
  
Somewhat hesitantly, he looked up once more, only to see something fade out several flights up. Every single muscle in his body tensed involuntarily, and were it possible, his hand would've tightened its grip even _more_ on the Z-shaped knife held in it.   
  
_"Someone's expecting me,"_ he thought numbly, feeling stupid that he hadn't managed to figure it all out beforehand.   
  
With that, he slowly started to climb the steps. One at a time, heedless of the outside world, yet keeping a very weary eye out for whatever it was that had faded a way but a few seconds earlier. At the rate he moved, it took around ten minutes to finish ascending the stairs, and at every turn, he constantly felt as though he were being watched... Like someone was about to jump out from above him and gun him down before he could even register them.   
  
Finally though, he made it to the top, only to find himself stepping up into what seemed like a cubby with a door in it. The door itself was old fashioned in appearance. It was hinged, had a knob and even what looked like a peep hole of some sort, but upon touching it, he could tell that it was probably made of steel or some other metal.   
  
Hesitantly as before, he turned the knob and gave a push, only to find himself almost stumbling into a room that, put simply, _did not fit_ with the rest of the base that he had seen so far.   
  
The room itself was little more than a giant glassteel dome with a very _solid_ looking central support beam with what looked to be a toilet stall built into it. The floors were covered in a fine, velvety green set of rugs and it was furnished in a manner that suggested fine taste in spite of the fact that the facility was in the middle of Hell. A lengthy couch-styled bed that looked as if it hadn't been used once was placed near the furthest wall, several small tables with potted plants on them stood here and there, a number of uncomfortably formal looking chairs scattered about and a heavy brown oak desk, with several monitors of varying size spread out across it, along with what looked like stacks of completed, neatly kept paperwork and a few randomly placed picture frames.   
  
What drew his attention though, was the man seated in the throne-like reclining office chair behind it.   
  
He was a bit on the tall side, with neatly kept black hair and the greenest eyes that Bit had ever seen. He was pale too, with a narrow nose and thin lips that looked as if they were _meant_ for smiling death at someone, with a naturally sophisticated expression on his face. He wore an emerald green shirt of some kind beneath a black business suit that looked like it had cost more than it took to feed a family of eight for a year, with thick soled loafers that looked as if they'd never touched dirt once since they'd been put together. His feet were kicked up almost lazily onto the desk and his hands were placed casually in his lap, held together as if he'd been twiddling his thumbs.   
  
"Hello, Bit Cloud... Or is it still Three? Or should I just call you Guardian now?" He asked, and immediately, Bit knew who this man was, recognizing him from earlier in the day.   
  
It was the face of the enemy.   
  
It was Vilhelm Rommel himself.   
  
"_You_," Bit spat out immediately. Every fiber in his being was _screaming_ to throw the knife at Rommel's face and kill him right then and there, but for reasons he would've never been able to put into words, he didn't. He stopped short of even raising his knife hand up and instead grit his teeth together so harshly that his jaw hurt.   
  
"Not one for intelligent greetings, are you? No matter. Shut the door, would you?" Rommel asked with a disturbingly polite tone of voice while taking his feet off of the desk. It was as if the temperature in the room had dropped below freezing, but Bit complied anyway, slamming the door behind him and locking it as he did so.   
  
"I'm gonna kill you," he growled out with an utterly _feral_ sense of satisfaction, his face contorting into an animalistic glare.   
  
"You'll try, no doubt... But you'll fail. The hero types like you always do, after all," Rommel replied as breezily as if they were discussing the weather over a cup of coffee. With that, he pushed the chair back and stood up, giving Bit the once over as he did so.   
  
"Not one for bathing either, I see," he commented at the fact that Bit was all but covered head to toe in peoples' blood.   
  
"Is that all you've got to say?" Bit sneered, readying for the knife throw.   
  
"Not at all, my good lemming. In fact, I've been looking forward to a chat with you for quite some time now... A shame I couldn't do the same with Leyla and that Obscura boy," Rommel replied. "Come, have my seat."   
  
"I'll _pass_, thanks," Bit spat, making it a point to try and shake blood onto the rugs.   
  
"Now, now... I'm going to kill you, Bit, rest assured of that much," Rommel said with a thin smile, and Bit felt a chill run down his spine. "But also rest assured that I'll give you a clear warning in the interest of fair play," he added, still smiling.   
  
The most disturbing part of it all was that Bit really believed him.   
  
"What the hell do you wanna talk about?" He demanded, edging towards the desk as Rommel stepped aside completely and instead seated himself in a different chair all together.   
  
"I just want to get to know you," Rommel answered pleasantly, waiting until Bit finally got around to the other side of the desk to take his eyes off of him.   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Know thy enemy. I don't have any plans for recruiting you, Bit. You've been a very odd person to deal with, do you know that?" He asked casually, motioning for Bit to sit down. The blonde remained standing, and instead of insisting, Rommel simply shrugged while scooting up to the desk and propping his arms against it.   
  
"Odd?" Bit asked, finding it harder and harder to not want to look down at the monitors. This _had_ to be a trap.   
  
"Yes, very odd indeed... On the one hand, you've constantly undermined Rommel Corp, yet at the same time... You've constantly been helping me. Don't you find that perplexing in the slightest?" Rommel asked.   
  
"Biggest mystery of the fucking universe," Bit replied bluntly.   
  
"Yes... Curiouser and curiouser, I find it. Everytime you've sought to cripple my efforts, you've simply aided me in some far-flung way. Every man and woman you've killed is someone who's been taken out of my way, and every battle you've fought since the Royal Cup has helped me along. When I kidnapped Bill Chapman, for instance," he paused for a moment, waiting to see if Bit would appear angry. When he didn't, Rommel continued. "As I was saying, when I kidnapped Bill Chapman, _you_ had helped me by weakening him beforehand. Granted, I could have just as easily taken you, but... Well, Bit, we all have a tendency to go with our own kind, don't we?" He asked with a shadow in his eyes.   
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bit sneered, finally looking down into one of the monitors in time to see what looked like a fully grown titan of a man being beaten into a cockpit while wearing some sort of metal bowl on his head. Cords were promptly jammed in and then... Nothing. The screen flipped over to another area.   
  
"You'll figure it out sooner or later... Probably when you're dead, but I have that much faith in your intelligence," Rommel replied idly before continuing. "You helped me again, you see, when you began picking off those useless Geno Saurer pilots - with one notable exception. Likewise, when you killed so many of the local Zoids that the Corp had been testing out here..."   
  
"... What the fuck kind of idiot kills his own people?"   
  
"They weren't my people, and I assure you that their deaths only serve to convenience me in the long run," Rommel answered simply. "I take it none of my logic makes any sense to you at all, does it?" He asked.   
  
"None. You sick freak," Bit snorted out, finally realizing that the hand holding his knife was shaking.   
  
"I should have guessed as much... You know, you're rather like the last men who had the nerve to try and stop me," Rommel... Complimented him? "Though I'll admit that they were better than you, in their own ways. One was a better man, another was a better being and another was just a better shot," he commented. "But you... You would be a thorn in my side all on your own, assuming I didn't kill you here and now..."   
  
Bit started to raise his hand, but Rommel held up both of his own to show that he wasn't planning anything. Yet.   
  
"I said clear warning, Bit," Rommel pointed out with some amusement. "Or do you _want_ to die now?"   
  
"I'll kill you before you can even call security," Bit spat.   
  
"I prefer doing my own dirty work in these kinds of situations... Even if it's still only second-hand, you know?" Rommel asked before standing up.   
  
"Go on," Bit ordered as Rommel began to step away, turning his back on the blonde completely and crossing his arms as he did so.   
  
"You want a motive, I'm guessing?" Rommel asked, walking up to one of the clear glassteel walls and putting his hand onto it.   
  
"Yeah. What the hell kind of _bullshit_ reasoning do you have to justify this, anyway?" Bit demanded, finally putting his free hand onto the desk, along with one foot. Rommel had his back turned and his guard down, it was the perfect chance to do him in here and now...   
  
"Two of the oldest reasons in the book, Bit. Power and revenge," Rommel answered simply. "Just as it was Rommel's destiny to be my Acolyte, so is it also my destiny to accomplish what Aionios was stopped from doing..."   
  
With that, Bit lunged forward and Rommel whipped around, slinging a rather large, dangerous looking handgun out of his coat and firing without so much as a word. Bit only barely managed to twist in mid-air in time to avoid having his face blown off, and the round tore through the top of Rommel's former desk chair before being stopped by the glassteel - and even _that_ cracked.   
  
With that, Bit hit the ground on both feet and a hand in a skid, the rug crumpling up in front of him. Rommel gave him a reprimanding look, akin to a parent gently scolding a toddler.   
  
"Now, now... I was going to give you fair warning, but you just _had_ to go and force my hand like that," he said with a tone of utter amusement.   
  
For a few moments, neither of them moved an inch. Neither breathed, neither blinked, neither budged or shifted from how they were posed, with Rommel still holding his gun out and Bit still waiting to spring onto the attack.   
  
"Die."   
  
Rommel swung his gun back towards Bit's face, the Handleblade went flying and the shot misfired into the ceiling. The gun and the knife clattered to the floor and both men became little more than indistinct shapes blurred by movement as Bit lunged up from the ground and lashed out. Two punches aimed at Rommel's face and a simple sidestep carried him a way from both as if it were dancing and Rommel were in the lead.   
  
Bit felt his fists sting while he turned to face Rommel, only to find the sole of a loafer planting itself into his lower jaw. Without a sound, the younger man fell back and rolled away, blindly grabbing the knife as he did so.   
  
Both hands braced themselves backwards onto the floor, Bit flung himself up to his feet and automatically dodged another sidekick in the process. Rommel took it in stride, going with his own momentum and stepping through with a wild right hook that caught the blonde right in the temple. His head erupted in pain, but his feet stayed rooted to the ground and his own right hand lashed out as well. Where Bit had been stunned by the hits he had taken, Rommel simply caught his fist with one hand and threw out the other arm, grasping Bit under the armpit before nonchalantly slinging him over one hip and into one of the tables.   
  
Glass shattered under his stomach and wood didn't exactly fair much better. Bit felt his shirt ripping and his skin bleeding by the time he got to the floor, while Rommel casually took another step or two back out of his reach.   
  
"Thirteen years of martial arts training and he still gets blood on his suits. Ridiculous, isn't it?" The older man asked. Bit spat at his feet in reply and then stood up.   
  
"Eager for another go, I take it?" Rommel asked pleasantly while drawing his hands up into a wavering stance, open palmed and fingers bent. He was jiving about almost like a professional boxer or a dancer of some kind, and Bit was finding it more frustrating than anything he'd ever dealt with before.   
  
Without another word though, he jumped back into things, leading in a punch with his knife hand and watching Rommel sidestep it completely. At first, Bit had thought that the older man had taken the bait and started to swing his body into a cross between a left hook, an uppercut and a haymaker at once, but again, Rommel was faster. Whatever Bit had or hadn't been thinking before, having both of Rommel's hands crash palm first into his face changed his mind completely. It was like being hit with two sledge hammers that happened to have skin, and the fact that Rommel raked his fingernails across Bit's forehead and lower jaw didn't exactly help the sting.   
  
He managed to stand though, and just as Rommel drew back in what looked like preparation to punch Bit's lights out, the blonde reacted. His mind was still reeling, he could barely see straight and his body was acting almost on autopilot as one leg went flying out. Rommel wasn't prepared for the kick and took it for everything it was worth, right in the ribcage. Bit _swore_ he heard something crack, but if he'd broken or damaged a rib, Rommel wasn't showing it very well.   
  
Bit recovered from his attack and struck out again, but Rommel was again prepared for him. He caught Bit's fist and yanked the blonde in, one hand going to Bit's chest in the process. The older man kept his younger foe off balance with a simply twist of Bit's captured fist, just before using the hand on his chest to heave him up. The hand holding Bit's own then gave another shove as Rommel turned around and used the blonde's prior momentum to fling up into the air.   
  
Bit flipped upside down, hit the central pillar and plopped back down on the floor with a dull thud.   
  
"I don't know whether to laugh or just be disappointed," Rommel commented breezily while allowing Bit the chance to get up.   
  
"How about fucking yourself?" Bit asked after a few seconds of scraping himself off the floor.   
  
Rommel didn't even give him a reply other than reaching up and straightening his jacket up. With that, he dusted himself off, wiped the bloodstains that Bit had caused on his clothing, then politely waited for the other of the two to get to his feet. Bit heaved exhaustedly and leaned against the pillar for a moment before shaking his head and rushing back into the frey.   
  
This time, he lead in with a shoulder, but Rommel simply reached out a hand, caught the shoulder and gave a pull while sidestepping. His knee found Bit's stomach and his shin found the blonde's groin. By the time that Bit managed to stumble away, literally hearing little birds and seeing stars as he did so.   
  
Unfortunately Rommel didn't give him such a polite chance to catch his breath this time. Fists went flying and Bit, still in la-la land from the simultaneous beating to his crotch and his stomach, ended up taking every last one of them. A half-dozen punches in all - two to the face, two to the chest and then two more to the throat and right cheek. Bit stumbled back again and this time, he ended up falling over a chair.   
  
The same chair that Rommel promptly grabbed by the leg with one hand and beat him with while he was still down. Suffice to say, wood shattered after the third or fourth hit and Rommel was reduced to grabbing Bit by the wrist of his knife hand and yanking him up to his feet before whacking him one last time with the severed leg of the chair. Wood broke against Bit Cloud's skull and the blonde dizzily staggered away again, his vision literally swimming as he made it to the desk.   
  
"Everything has a purpose, Bit," Rommel casually began as Bit turned to face him, barely even able to stand at this point.   
  
"Yours, just like all of humanity's..."   
  
Rommel reached into his jacket with a breezy look on his face. With that, he drew another gold-plated magnum handgun, just like the last one, and leveled it on Bit's face.   
  
"Is to die."   
  
Bit threw his left hand up, bringing the knife with it, and smacked the gun across the barrel as Rommel pulled the trigger. The bullet ended up screaming through his hair and left his scalp bleeding, but he survived it anyway. Unlike before though, Rommel simply lashed out once again, his gun still in hand. The barrel cracked soundly across Bit's temple with enough force that Bit went all but blind for a split second, blood spurting out of his nose and his right eye bleeding from the inside.   
  
And then, rather than just shooting Bit and ending it there, Rommel reached out with his free hand, grabbing the blonde by the back of the head and using his gun arm to capture one of Bit's own in something resembling a hammer lock. With that, he wheeled him around to face the desk and then nonchalantly stuck a foot in the younger man's path, tripping him and then driving his face right into the desk with enough force to shatter the oak in two.   
  
Bit finally let go of the Handleblade once again, his face busted open completely and his nose broken in at least two different places. Every one of his front teeth felt as if they were about to fall out and his eyes were starting to fog with red by the time that Rommel stood up, again dusting himself off before aiming the gun down at the back of Bit's head.   
  
He was going to die here. Rommel was going to put a bullet through his skull, executioner's style, without even bothering to face him.   
  
"Good-bye, Three."   
  
It was all over...   
  
Rommel pulled the trigger.   
  
And the whole room rattled about as _something_ roared from within the very bowels of the Dome itself, throwing off Rommel's shot once again and leaving the man to stagger back. Bit never would've been able to explain it, but that roar _woke him up_ right then and there, giving him enough wherewithall to reach for the knife once again and blindly roll onto his back before throwing it out. Rommel's gun clanged against the blade, there was a scream and the man fell back, his forefingers all cleanly severed in a diagonal line from the second joint of the index finger to the first joint of his pinky.

"Checkmate, bitch," Bit laughed out dizzily, watching the gun, Rommel's fingers and the Handleblade all rain to the floor.   
  
Rommel's only reply was to scream and hold his bleeding hand while stumbling back several steps, his mannerisms seeming to undergo an entire shift as he fell over onto his backside. Then, slowly, biting his lip to keep from screaming more than he already had, Rommel looked up, and once more, he and Bit made eye contact...   
  
"_Run_," Vilhelm ordered desperately, his voice wheezing out with only shadows of its former sophistication and grace. Even that evil air of supremacy seemed to leave as a pair of decidedly _purple_ eyes stared into Bit's own.   
  
"Wh-" Instinct kicked in while the mind was still puzzling, and before Bit knew it, he had rolled from his former spot. The floor promptly erupted into a pillar of green light that shined like hellfire, stabbing through the glassteel ceiling and howling up into the skies before coming right back around once again. Before Bit even realized what he was doing, he had scrambled back over to the desk and used it to throw himself up to his feet, again throwing a look at Vilhelm's face.   
  
That's when the realization truly dawned upon him.   
  
"You're nothing but a puppet..."   
  
"**_RUN NOW!_**" Vilhelm cried out, his face covered in tears as the green light bolted back in.   
  
Bit dodged once more as the ceiling exploded again, though the bolt of green light promptly collected into a perfect sphere, then rapidly took shape before broken glassteel could even hit the floor. Stale air wafted in from outside, and Bit stumbled back, looking up to see the towering form of an eight or nine foot tall cross between a raptor and a dragon. It was slender, gracefully proportioned like the predatory beast it looked to be modeled upon, covered from head to toe to the tip of the tail with emerald green metal plating that bent and formed into an almost skin-like appearance. Then there were the eyes, bright and intelligently golden, yet surrounded by the darkest shade of black imaginable, as if it were wearing some sort of eye liner.   
  
_So much for second-hand, eh?_ Spectacle asked with the notion of a grin.   
  
"_You're_ the cause of all this?!"   
  
_Do you honestly think so many of you stupid little monkeys would flock to such a genocidal cause if someone wasn't manipulating them all?_ The Organoid asked with palpable amusement as the black lining between each of its countless panels of green, metallic skin lit up with the same hellish light as before.   
  
Once again, Bit's body reacted before his mind could even wrap itself around what was going on, and as Spectacle bolted forward, the Guardian had jumped aside, feeling the dried blood on his skin rip away from how close he came to being ripped in half. Glassteel shattered around the Organoid by the time Bit landed, and Spectacle left little more than a gigantic hole in its wake.   
  
"I... Said..."   
  
His attention shifted from the spectacular green bolt of energy that was coming back around for another strike, back over to Vilhelm, who had clumsily grabbed and raised the same gun that Bit had cut from his hand barely a minute ago.   
  
"**_RUN YOU IDIOT!!!_**"   
  
"St-**_AH!_**" Bit screamed, stumbling back and feeling his right shoulder, the same one that Kale had scarred only two or three months earlier, explode in pain as a bullet plowed through it. He heard his bones cracking and breaking around it, felt his muscles ripping and saw his own blood literally _geyser_ out of the wound with such force that it seemed like it would throw him over.

"**_FUCK!_**" He screamed out, slinging his free hand up to his shoulder as his arm went limp. Within a second, he had fallen down to his knees, just as the glassteel shattered _again_, peppering both men with shrapnel and leaving both of them covered in their own blood, though this was far more visible in Rommel's case since he wasn't already covered in it to begin with.   
  
With that, the green bolt re-materialized as an Organoid, just in front of where Bit was starting to stand. Patiently, Spectacle waited, allowing the blonde to get to his feet before jumping up and twisting around, that whip-like tail crashing across Bit's injured shoulder and breaking his good hand's fingers in the process. Without even screaming, Bit was thrown back into the broken remnants of the desk, _almost_ falling through the hole where Spectacle had first entered the room.   
  
"_Goddamnitsonofabitch_," he rambled out incoherently, feeling the handle of his knife and again managing to grab it, though he had to use only his left thumb to do it.   
  
Spectacle waited a few seconds, then slowly began to walk forward. Again, Bit fought his way up to his feet and again, he had to avoid falling to his death through the Organoid's first entrance.   
  
_You humans... Always taking so long to die_, Spectacle commented, flexing his claws and his jaw before getting ready for what looked to be the death blow.   
  
"If you hate us, why did you use Rommel?" Bit asked out of nowhere, trying to buy time at this point. His vision was starting to come back, and without even bothering to stop himself, he had turned to face the Organoid head on.   
  
_Irony's sake, Guardian. That and I know that I'm not smart enough to have assembled so many of you rotten monkeys for one cause without killing myself from the exertion...   
  
_Spectacle tensed, giving another mental smile.   
  
_So I reprogrammed someone else and let them do it for me.   
  
_The Organoid lunged, Bit screamed and felt his leg give out from another gunshot wound, leaving him to fall out of the way while simultaneously starting to bleed to death.   
  
"**_RUN!_**" Vilhelm screamed out _again_, no longer able to steady the gun and seemingly unable to just aim it at Spectacle and fire. Either way, the Organoid simply landed with its feet spread to either side of its original hole, then shifted a dangerous glare towards the knelt Rommel.   
  
Bit heard Vilhelm's screams, looked up to see his eyes starting to change color and then rolled away again, feeling the world start to slip away and go silent. Everything was a blur by the time that he hobbled up, supporting his weight on one tired leg and trying to cling to the Handleblade with only his thumb and palm to do it. A few seconds ticked by as he hobbled back, facing the duo, and Rommel's eyes finished turning green all together.   
  
He said something that Bit didn't hear-   
  
_Behind you.   
  
_- and raised the gun as if the pain in his other hand had ceased to exist, though blood was still oozing out of each severed finger.   
  
_Jump!   
  
_Bit felt his chest seizing up as Spectacle turned to leer at him, with the human puppet mirroring the Organoid master's notion of a satisfied smile.   
  
**_JUMP NOW!   
  
_**Without even looking back, without even thinking about the order, Bit used every ounce of energy that remained in his leg to hurl himself back and into the air. Without knowing it, he slipped through one of the holes in the glassteel and went flying over the edge, just as Rommel pulled the trigger.

End Chapter Four

* * *

**Author's Note:** Do you have _ANY IDEA_ how long I've been wanting todo this? XD  
  
That said, if you want evidence of when I first started leading up to this: Madison called Rommel an Acolyte. In one of Henry's flashbacks, Rommel has naturally purple eyes. Aaaaand If you can't figure out what the purple eyes and pale skin means when taken into context with a few other things, I ain't tellin' ya .  
  
I'm also proud of the Harry scene. That came out of nowhere to Bridge the Gap™ between scenes three and five... And yeah. Harry got lucky. And Harry _did_ talk to the dead. A whole lotta people did, if Sebastian's whining didn't clue you in.  
  
Maybe everyone kept banging their heads on something? XD  
  
And yes, I've been planning this chapter and the next two, three, maybe even four ever since I got good into ROC.  
  
**LET THE AHBL BEGIN!**  
  
**Akino Ame:** The kid was actually fathered by both o.o; It's one of those random Acts of God that can't really be explained, though plink gave me a pretty good idea a while back involving Fiona's physiology and how it might've reacted to having human DNA shot into it. I don't remember most of it though .; Anyway, glad I got the Van thing more spot-on than I thought.  
  
**Kegger007:** Good luck with your fic :D And yes, the Handleblade is _very_ sharp, or else Vilhelm would still have his fingers right about now...  
  
**Father Malvado:** That _is_ propaganda o.O; Anywho, have fun cursing my ass off.  
  
**Illidan:** Better than the poetry at least .  
  
**VegaObscuratheKing:** I'll elaborate on it sooner or later, but it's a long story on its own, let alone just trying to work it into something else in any detail. Suffice to say, it ties into Aionios.  
  
**Engar:** Bah XD My toe's at least healing, though it still looks like it'd start bleeding again if I gave a small pull to either side of it. As for the TT fanfic... Yeah x.x It's a decent show, but there's so much room to develop everything and... And... Do you have any idea when the _hell_ they'll come out with new episodes? I wanna see Terra die already! x.e  
  
Anywho, hope this all sated the 'ASS NEEDS TO BE KICKED!' needs that everyone seems to have had D  
  
Sh33p out. 


	5. Falling Towards Apotheosis

**Foreword:** Soundtrack is as follows.  
  
**Scene One:**  
Big O - Stoning  
Chrono Cross - Opening Theme  
**Scene Two:** Witch Hunter Robin - Shadow  
**Scene Three A:**  
Zoids - Zoid Eve's Theme  
Zoids - Wailing Steel  
**Scene Three B:**  
Witch Hunter Robin - Tactics(or Surprise Attack)  
Linkin Park - Opening  
**Scene Four:** Linkin Park - Intermission  
**Scene Five:** The Matrix - Klaus  
**Scene Six:** Hack Sign - Fake Wings  
**Scene Seven:**  
Witch Hunter Robin - Surprise Attack  
Trigun - The Genocide Song 

Death to the FFN Upload Monkeys. Death to them all.

* * *

**Tides of Darkness**  
Falling Towards Apotheosis   
  


The bullet shrieked in so fast that human eyes would've never been able to follow it, and even Bit Cloud was no exception at this point. He barely even had the time to let out a nauseating scream as the round punched through the kevlar of his armored overshirt. In nanoseconds, it tore through his skin and muscle, hit bone and plowed through it like it wasn't even there, leaving another gush of blood to spray out from the entrance wound. In milliseconds, the bullet punched through his left lung, hit another rib and broke through it. In a hundredth of a second, the bullet ripped out through his back, passing between the plates of his armor and tumbling away like some sort of demented snowflake in Hell's graveyard.   
  
Vilhelm, or perhaps more accurately, the Rommel that was Spectacle's puppet, continued smile the entire time. The recoil from the handgun didn't even budge his arm back, and the faint whisps of smoke rising up from the barrel, combined with how horribly bloodied he still was, gave the distinct impression that this personality seemed to enjoy what he'd done. Perhaps it was part of Spectacle's programming? Even if it wasn't though, that didn't matter now. Only one question remained, and it was the only one that his pain wracked mind could comprehend at the moment.   
  
_"How did it come to this?"_ He wondered, unable to even register his own screaming as the blood continued spilling through the air. He was so lightheaded at this point that he didn't even know if he would survive his blood loss long enough to actually hit whatever was below him...   
  
And then, gravity kicked in. With how beaten he was, it felt like someone had re-shackled him and added another ton of eight to each chain and mannacle, and the sudden shift of momentum was enough to make the bile start to rise in his throat.   
  
But how _did_ it come to this? Only three, maybe as many as four months ago at the most, he had been on top of the world. He had won the Royal Cup. He had beaten the odds so badly that he'd almost singlehandedly dealt the killing blow to the Backdraft Group's financial future. He had even been playing a game of checkers with Vega Obscura, of all people...   
  
_How_ did it go from that picture of blissful victory, when he'd been unable to walk around sometimes without having fans trying to mob him, to this? He was about to die, either from god knows how much physical trauma, bleeding to death or just falling until he hit the ground... And if he survived _that_, he was just going to die from exposure. It wasn't fair at all, and it didn't make any sense. By all rights, he should've been a Class S champion by now - it wasn't like he hadn't beaten enough people to prove it.   
  
But here he was...   
  
**[**_"Welcome to the gateway, Bit!"_**]**   
  
Had it been then? Had it all started going rotten when Kale had massacred Garnhelm?   
  
**[**_"**IT'S SHOWTIME, ZEKE!!!**"_**]**   
  
Maybe it had started with that? Maybe it had all been because of how he had lost his mind with grief. Maybe this was all just repayment for how he wasn't able to save his family's lives?   
  
**[**_"You're predictable."_**]**   
  
No. It all started with Kale. It _had_ to...   
  
Time seemed to go in slow motion right now. Seconds ticked by into individual eternities and Bit found himself slowly losing the ability to focus on even his own depressed musings about how his fall from the top was now being mirrored by the fall to his death.   
  
It was then, that in the bloody haze of his current state, he heard it coming.   
  
Something loud was tearing through the Dome, somewhere towards his feet. Morbid curiosity alone guided him to tilt his head forward, and that was when he saw it.   
  
Even though everything else had long since turned a bloody, darkened red, what he saw exploding up out of the roof of the Dome, on the other side of Rommel's tower, was almost entirely solid gold. It was lined with silver, swirling about like some sort of cyclone as it bolted up into the skies at the speed of thought. His eyes tracked it as best they could, and when he regained sight of the front of it, the golden lightning was corkscrewing back around in a wide, graceful arc.   
  
The metallic surface of the Dome's roof was coming up fast.   
  
The energy seemed to grind to a complete halt, forming up into a golden sphere and then shooting right towards him.   
  
Bit watched it become obscured by the tower, knew that he was about to hit the Dome and probably bounce off of it, then slide down to the hellish grounds below. He watched a little longer as the bottom of the tower ripped apart, glassteel and warped metal spraying through the side of its upper half as the bolt came screaming in. Silver faded away by then, and all that was left was gold, centered around solid white light as bright as the sun.   
  
It came closer.   
  
The steel of the Dome was less than a foot away...   
  
It kept coming closer.   
  
Six inches now, and it felt like a mile.   
  
Finally, it all came to a close. Bit closed his eyes and felt himself hit _something_ before what felt like a dozen ropes slung themselves around his body. An instant later, the world went gold.   
  
The next second, all he could make out were the sounds of panels slamming shut, followed by what felt like the warmest sensation he'd ever known. Even as that warmth continued to wash over him though, all he could see was gold, and all that he could hear was the noise of metal crumpling and ripping so quickly that it almost sounded like a drunken riveter having a field day. It felt like an impossibly slow process as the pain began to filter out of his senses, replaced instead by what almost seemed like a warm, friendly hand placing itself on his wounded shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze.   
  
He didn't know whether or not it was supposed to hurt, but it didn't.   
  
Soon, nothing did at all. his vision, though he still couldn't make out any details at all, steadied itself, and he could almost _feel_ the excess blood leaving his eyes. It was something he couldn't articulate even if he had wanted to, but it was as though each and every cell in his body was repairing itself. At the same time, he felt _full_, as if he'd just eaten an eight course meal, had dessert, gotten up at midnight and done it all over again without even batting an eye.   
  
And then, finally, it came to an end.   
  
The sound of metal sheering ceased to exist, replaced instead by the noise of thrusters. A second later, that came to an end as well, and was replaced almost instantly by the sounds of feet hitting metal, and then those were replaced by panels splitting open again. The feel of ropes all over his body returned and by the time Bit opened his eyes again, it was all over.   
  
The ropes were gone, the panels had slammed shut once more and he was standing on his own two feet, able to hold the Handleblade with all of his left hand once again. His wounds, as grievous as they were, had seemingly vanished in a matter of seconds. He still felt certain ghosts of pain here and there, and he knew that the gunshot to his shoulder was probably going to add another scar on top of the one from Kale's dagger, but he wasn't writhing in agony anymore. Even the hair that had been blown off by Rommel's gun had grown back, though his clothes were still a mess and he was still all but coated in a thin but manageable layer of blood and grime.   
  
What he saw when he opened his eyes though... It was like looking at a storybook image come to life. In the split second it took him to bring his eyes up from the 'floor,' he found himself face to face with a creature he'd always known to some extent or other. At first, it had been through the stories of his many-times-great grandmother, and then it had been through an accute awareness. After that came a true bond, but never a face-to-face meeting...   
  
It was a tall, stockier cross between a dragon and a raptor of some kind, powerfully built as if made to handle protracted fights and long periods of running or some other form of exertion. The only thing that had kept him from recognizing it for even a fraction of a second was the seeming shift from the silver, purple and red of his grandmother's stories, to a gold, white and green reality that was impossible for most people to really understand anymore.   
  
Everything clicked the moment that he set his eyes onto the Organoid's own. Green met green and the vaguest notion of a smile etched its way through the back of his thoughts.   
  
_And I was sleeping so peacefully, too...   
  
_It wasn't funny, but Bit truly couldn't help himself from bursting into laughter and all but flinging himself at the Organoid. Zeke responded in kind with a loud roar, one that almost sounded like the Liger Zero's own when it had all but laughed at Bit on the day he'd banged his chin against the safety harness.   
  
For the first time in a long while, something was _right_ with the world.

* * *

  
There was a notifying series of clicks from the comm. The entire cockpit shifted forward a bit and a hand idly smacked at the switch in the dark. A few seconds later, the main screen flipped on, followed by the two to his sides. Together, they revealed the layout of the Dome's central hangar, though his attentions were more or less drawn straight to the smaller window that popped up in the lefthand corner of the forward screen.   
  
"... What in the blue _hell_ happened to you?" Larry Cloud, better known amongst the Corp by the callsign of Vandal, asked. His mouth was practically sagging open at the sight he was being presented with.   
  
"Something unimportant. Fleshwounds heal," Rommel calmly replied, virtually unconcerned the fact that he was covered in blood and had enough cut wounds on his body to scar him for life. Vandal could only barely see that he was also holding a now bloody towel to one of his hands, and that his 'office' was completely trashed in every sense of the word.   
  
"What _is_ important, I believe, is that I do indeed owe you a drink," Rommel pointed out with a businessman's smile, now rendered utterly disturbing by his current appearance.   
  
"... Riiiiight... I told you he'd bust out if you didn't guard 'im better," Larry pointed out, now decidedly _against_ having this man pay for one of his drinks.   
  
"Indeed, you did. But that's water under the bridge now... Just be sure to take him down. Feel free to kill him while you're at it," Rommel commented idly, just before nodding at something out of sight. The comm flipped off instantly.   
  
_"What the hell was that about?"_ Larry wondered with an inward cringe. Had he gotten in too deep this time? Was Bit right when he'd said that Rommel was a psychopath?   
  
Either way, concerns for the almighty dollar made him shift away from his thoughts a few seconds later. He'd been catching a nap in the cockpit of the Storm Breaker for the simple reason that it was the single most comfortable place in the entire Dome for him. The only one where he could let his guard down and not feel like he was being watched every step of the way.   
  
Systems started up, the HUD activated and his sensors kicked on. The Liger Zero, broken down and beaten up as it was, had to be lying around in the same secondary hangar as before. Even though it hadn't exactly been functional by the time it'd been hauled in from the killing fields earlier, Bit was predictable. He'd go for it even if the thing was dead and fossilizing.   
  
With that in mind, weapons control systems finished booting up. Larry acquired a target lock on a non-Corp registered Zoid in bay 32, then activated his boosters. Accordingly, the mutant Geno Saurer took off without so much as a roar.

* * *

_We're going to have company soon,_ Zeke pointed out. The good feeling of the moment slowly washed away like sand on a beach, gradually finding itself replaced by a cycle of differing emotions. The first was denial, then anger and finally resignation. It took only a few seconds for this to run its course, but when it was over, Bit literally pried his arms from around the Organoid's waist, sighed and gave a nod.   
  
"I know," he said, and that was it.   
  
_Then what are you waiting for?_ Zeke asked.   
  
"Nothing," Bit found himself answering on autopilot while Zeke stepped aside, his metallic feet lightly clanging against the equally metallic floor, and it was at about that moment that Bit realized just what they were standing on.   
  
While the body itself was still easily recognizable and black as night, the armor had turned a dark gold. Though he couldn't quite see it, something told him that the Liger's optics had permanently changed from orange to a shade of green not entirely unlike his own, and although he couldn't see everything about it from this angle, he already knew that what the Liger Zero had gained as a result of its transformation. From what he could see though, given that he and Zeke were situated on the small of the former Ultimate X's back, the changes had been things previously only available with the CAS units.   
  
First and foremost were the pair of gigantic buster blades folded down on the back, the natural evolutions of the Liger Zero's previous anti-lift stabilizers returning to their original function. After that came the boosters, which had gotten a bit bigger and now looked as if they were mounted on a pair of turrets, allowing them to pivot about for better manuevering. Then came the tail, which now boasted not only its original gun, but a pair of small laser blades, currently folded back in a manner similar to a bayonet.   
  
The actual _body_ had also changed. It was smoother now, though still easily recognizable. The shoulders and hips now bore a far more striking resemblance to the Schneider's though, and although Bit couldn't quite see, he had the distinct impression that the old dual impact cannon had been replaced by a triple impact cannon, close to the Panzer's than anything else. He could also already tell that something like the Jaeger's vulcan pods had been added to the Liger's cheeks.   
  
_Get to it then,_ Zeke ordered, breaking Bit out of his reverence and causing the blonde to bolt forward.   
  
Without even thinking, Bit raced between both boosters and blades, jumped the top of the Liger's mane and somehow ended up landing inside of the open cockpit - and even _that_ had changed since it now had a second seat tucked away in the back of the head, though he had no real idea what purpose, if any, that served.   
  
Somewhat hesitantly, the blonde brought his hands to the controls, and watched the cockpit slipping shut around him. He felt the safety harness slapping down around his upper body like it so often did, and he almost relished at the sound of the Liger's sudden roar, which was so loud that he could've sworn that he felt his stomach vibrating from it. A few seconds later though, the roar died down, the lights in the cockpit came on and he was greeted by the same old consoles as before, including a newly added screen off to his right that showed nothing but a wireframe image of the Zoid. It detailed weaponry - though he didn't read that part - and showed the status of the Liger pretty well...   
  
And it also gave it a name. Shown in bold type at the bottom righthand side of the screen.   
  
"Liger Zero Kaiser..." Bit said to himself, feeling a sudden jolt in the back of his brain immediately afterward.   
  
Before it could even happen, the blonde's eyes had trailed up to one of the doors into this particular hangar. In doing so, he was able to watch with some measure of expectancy as the door began to bulge in a half-dozen places at once. Then there were a half a dozen more, and the process repeated itself again a second later. The other Zoids in the hangar cowered back, but the Liger Zero wasn't one of them. As the king that it had been before, the former Ultimate X simply let out a snarl and braced itself into a battle ready posture...   
  
A second after that, a pair of razor sharp talons punched through the door, slowly ripping down and then pulling away to reveal a single red optic, flaring malevolently into the hangar as if it owned the place.   
  
"Zeke," Bit began, not even bothering to keep his thoughts to himself anymore.   
  
_What? _The Organoid asked, its body already starting to shimmer by then.   
  
"This one's mine," he answered, and felt a pit in his still-vibrating stomach as a result. He knew what it meant to say that, but at this point, there just wasn't any other way.   
  
_I understand.   
  
_Thrusters flared, and Bit felt Zeke's presence moving off of the Liger's back. The shimmer died down and the Organoid gradually flew up into the rafters. There he stayed, patient and observant.

* * *

  
Finally, the door ripped open entirely and the Red King was revealed once again. Alone, the tyrant and brother stood against one another, as each and every other Zoid and person in the hangar cowered away. Some of them fled, some of them tried to hide, but the end result was the same.   
  
There would be no interference this time. No endless numbers of cannon fodder to send to their deaths, no lasting element of surprise and no holds barred. Bit knew this instinctively, and he had a feeling that Larry did as well.   
  
One of them had to die. It was that simple.   
  
"Good-bye, Larry," Bit finally said over the broadband, feeling the Liger's claws begin to power up as the Storm Breaker's gattlings spun.   
  
A second later, the entire hangar erupted in gunfire.   
  
Rounds went screaming through the air at several times the speed of sound, but they only ended up hitting a curved wall of golden light as the Zero began closing in. Larry's only response was to mutter something indignant over the comm and kick on the Saurer's boosters, jumping over Bit's attempt at a shield ram and landing somewhere behind him. Where before, Bit would've tried turning around and going for melee, now he simply dropped the shield and opened up with the Liger's tail gun. Three shots fired, two hit and a third nailed a wall, and although it wasn't exactly the spectacular kind of firepower that was needed to put down the mutant Geno Saurer, it was apparently enough to rattle Larry's chain a bit.   
  
The Liger kept running though, continuing into the main hangar and then swinging back around on its foreclaws - both of which raked across the steel of the floor in the process. The ensuing shower of sparks was underscored by the grating sound that naturally comes with metal grinding against metal, almost like nails on a chalkboard. If this had any effect on Larry at all, the Storm Breaker didn't reflect it.   
  
Instead, it boosted up into a hover, swung around like some sort of dancer and opened up all over again, spewing mortars out of the back pod in the process. The bullets managed to do little more than ping off of the Liger's shield, which Bit had again raised by the skin of his teeth, but the mortars went howling up into the roof of the main hangar and bringing it down on his head.

* * *

  
_"Don't know how the hell you brought that thing back, but I'm putting it in its grave this time,"_ Larry thought, hitting the bottom-most triggers with his pinkies and causing the Breaker's forearms to split open, armored panels flipping side to reveal a pair of the same types of particle cannons boasted by the Proto Breaker. Another trigger pull and each cannon hummed to life furiously, their barrels unleashing a constant stream of silver-colored death into the growing pile of debris.   
  
"_Is that the best you can do_?" He heard over the comm, feeling his own brow twitch slightly as the debris exploded away.   
  
In the ensuing three seconds, Vandal found himself strafing his Zoid to the side as his particle beams were met and beaten back by what appeared to be nothing more than a colossal wave of pressure with a vaguely golden tint to it. The floors ripped around it, the frame of the door into bay 32 was split apart and turned into lethal shrapnel by it, and even though he managed to escape a direct hit, just being near it was enough to throw the Breaker out of the air and onto its feet with a hard skid.   
  
The back wall of the hangar crumpled but held up, and several helpless Zoids ended up getting thrown from their feet. Their luck didn't quite compare to the kind of horrid shape that the unfortunate mechanics and guards who hadn't been able to escape were now in though. Most of them were either on fire or splattered across every surface in the hangar - or both.   
  
Larry simply grit his teeth into a jagged little smile. It was almost intoxicating to actually get a challenge after what had happened earlier.   
  
"No, Bitty. It isn't."   
  
Particle cannons retracted into the forearms, both of which promptly shot out and latched onto the closest potential shield that he could find. In this case, it was an unlucky Command Wolf that was already half-dead from the battle before, let alone the shockwave just now. The hapless Zoid yelped and was reeled in before even a second had passed, its armor crumpled around the Storm Breaker's talons.   
  
"_Catch_!" He shouted, hitting the boosters and twisting around for a bit of added momentum before nonchalantly lobbing the little Zoid through the air and into the main hangar.   
  
It was dead before it ever hit the ground. Glowing saber-like teeth snapped shut around its stomach, sheered into it and mutilated the core before a simple jolt forward had caused the Liger to sever the poor thing in two. With that though, Larry opened fire again, and this time he managed to actually connect. The Liger roared as gattling and machine gun rounds from the Breaker's head hit it in its own, causing dings and scratches but failing to actually break through.   
  
A second later, Bit had no doubt recovered, and he brought the Zero into a howling run of its own, boosters going to full with the shield down. Larry bit back an insult and pulled more triggers in doing so, causing the gunpods' rocket launchers to pop out in full view before emptying themselves at the Liger.   
  
Bit simply jumped them.   
  
All of them.   
  
Time slowed down and the world became a tunnel, with the Liger Zero Kaiser at its end. Power seemed to surge throughout the entire Zoid, its claws burning as bright as a hellfire-lit sun before one was drawn back. Larry knew he had to shoot it down now, he knew already what was about to happen if he didn't... But he couldn't react fast enough. Even though his mind and his vision seemed to have gone straight through the roof over the course of a hundredth of a second, his body seemed as slow to move as if it were molasses.   
  
It was like a horrible dream, really. One that seemed to become even more so when the Liger finally thrust its retracted foreleg back out, all of that energy literally exploding off of it in fashion similar to a mushroom cloud, only to blur into nothing but a fast moving distortion in the air.   
  
The wave hit just as the Liger started to descend.   
  
Larry felt it as much as he couldn't even hear it. His ears and nose both began to leak out blood and his head started to feel as though it might implode as the air pressure in the cockpit went to Hell. Structure and armor warped, optics cracked to the point that almost nothing was visible without being covered in static and the Zoid's legs broke. The arms ripped off, the guns on the head bent straight down and the gattling rifles on the back became pancakes, while the gunpods simply broke away. Even the floor around the Storm Breaker screeched and yielded, causing the Zoid to sink at least four feet down inside of a perfectly circled crater.   
  
The sudden quadruple touchdown in front of his Zoid _forced_ him to open his eyes. When he did, Larry Cloud knew that he was looking death in the face as the Liger Zero bent low, both blades extending out on four-joint manipulator arms that were easily twice as long as those on the Berserk Fury. Both blades charged up, crackling with blue energy before swinging in on either side like a pair of scissors.   
  
"Aw hell..."   
  
Metal screamed, the side monitors exploded into sparks and Larry Cloud, the Vandal of Wind Colony, knew no more.

* * *

  
_Snap.   
  
_It was like the sensation one gets from being jabbed in the back of the head by another person's fingers. By now having long since made it halfway across the open, grime-coated plains, it was enough to bring her to a complete stop, so quickly that her feet left skid marks in their wake. A slightly wet-sounding smack followed across her entire backside as the unmanagable length of her hair ceased to drag through the stale air behind her. After that came the vague sense of unbalance that most people might've felt trying to run around with a lightweight baseball bat held in one hand, and when that had resolved itself...   
  
She finally stood up straight, feeling an almost nonexistent itch on her face, specifically where the tattoos were placed. Her jaw set grimly into a shadow of a smile as she looked back over her shoulder once again. Something akin to an impossible surge of pride seeped through her thoughts, though she knew it wasn't her own.   
  
He has succeeded, Roc's countless mental Voices said, and although Madison knew that the First Born was more thrilled by this announcement than any she had ever heard from it, she could also feel the barest traces of sadness as well.   
  
_"We'll be needed again though,"_ she pointed out in a bid to distract the Ancient.   
  
**I know**, it responded. Her distraction obviously hadn't worked.   
  
_"What's wrong?"_ She asked after a few seconds pause, eyes shifting towards the twin specks of light in the distance. One consisted of thrusters at maximum burn, the other was a slowly, malevolently circling purple streak, only barely visible against the violent clouds above it.   
  
**We have condemned him to our life. Even if he has passed the test... Even if _they_ have passed their tests, they will know no true, lasting peace from the moment they leave this place to the moment they enter their graves.   
  
**There was another slight pause between the two as that information washed through Madison's mind. Her response was as guiltless as it was logical.   
  
_"Sacrifices have to be made. At some level, they knew that the moment that Bit accepted,"_ she explained, feeling a bit of Roc's unease lift. Not enough though. _"They've passed the tests so far... I'm sure they'll pass the tests to come, as well."_   
  
**It no longer concerns you, does it?   
  
**_"... Not really," _she replied, and even Madison never would've been able to truly know whether or not she was telling the truth. Something in the back of her very being said that she should've felt some kind of guilt or concern, and yet the rest of her only figured it to be Roc's influence, just like so much of her behavior was anymore.   
  
_"I'll be there soon,"_ she commented idly, shrugging to herself before turning back towards the mesa.   
  
A second later, the grime around her feet exploded and the trail of hellishly placed footprints resumed as if it had never been interrupted at all.

* * *

  
The Storm Breaker's severed upper body fell away, crashing to the floor with a sickening crumple. Smoke and fire both vomited out of the cut ends, thankfully obscuring the more horrific details of his handiwork... And there could be no real mistakes about it, but because it had been _his_ handiwork. Exactly as he had killed so many people through the past months, he had no added one more body to the count.   
  
His own brother.   
  
Although it didn't hurt quite as badly as it could have, and he wasn't crying, it still felt worse than many of the deaths he had caused. It felt almost as personal as when he'd first taken a life with nothing but the Handleblade. Maybe even more so. At least he hadn't known the names of those people, or what their dreams had been. Whether or not their mothers and fathers spoke highly of them, whether or not they'd come into the Corp of their own free will or been forced into it somehow.   
  
With Larry, he knew pretty much everything. Even the evil parts, and that still didn't really help lessen the impact.   
  
After a while though, there just wasn't anything he could do other than to sigh, snort back a slightly runny nose and wipe eyes with forearm. With that, he'd sat up straight and turned the Liger away from its downed adversary, which was now starting to fossilize even as it continued burning away. Other Zoids in the hangar seemed to hold this new incarnation in reverence as Zeke's Voice returned to his mind again. It was somewhat mournful, but nowhere near as much as it could have been.   
  
_It's done with. There's nothing to do now but move on,_ the Organoid pointed out.   
  
"I know. I guess it's time we put a stop to... Whoever the hell's in charge with those two," Bit replied bluntly, shaking himself out and straightening up in the cockpit. With that, the golden Organoid hovered back down onto the Liger's head, glaring daggers towards the central hangar.   
  
_Not yet.   
  
_And that was when he heard it.   
  
A roar so loud that it rattled the very bones beneath his skin, leaving his ears sore and his stomach more unsettled in a few seconds than it had been even when he'd been trading punches with Rommel. A few seconds later, it was followed by a scream of metal and then a flash of light from the main hangar, blinding in its intensity. After that, the severed head of an Iron Kong rolled through Bit's field of vision, already stoning over as it went.   
  
"... Don't tell me there's another one," he grumbled out, only to watch as a Rev Raptor ran into view, then found itself shot to bits by something still out of sight. What looked like a pair of rainbowesque energy beams ripped it from its feet and a spray of Zoid-sized buzzsaws took it apart before it ever even hit the floor.   
  
_Worse.   
  
_"Peachy."   
  
_Indeed.   
  
_A few seconds more ticked by and another Zoid, this time a Lightning Saix, went flying across Bit's field of vision. It landed somewhere out of sight with a grating crash and a scream of tortured metal before a shadow came into view, vaguely feline in shape. Bit felt his shoulders clench up as it closed in, and narrowed his eyes almost on reflex as he saw its reflection on the floor. After that, he waited, feeling his stomach tighten as he felt Zeke stepping a bit closer to the cockpit and hunching forward.   
  
The unseen enemy seemed all too keen on giving up the element of surprise, as it emerged into full view a few seconds later. The whole thing looked like some kind of horribly warped Saber Tiger. It was almost entirely black, save for a set of bleed red claws, a red crest on its head, orange optics and a number of large, sharpened teeth - including saber-like fangs that were at _least_ twice the size of those on an ordinary Saber Tiger. There were snout-like vents on the front of the mouth, extending up to cover the front of the cockpit, while the body featured a pair of gattling guns in place of an impact cannon of any sort, with small beam cannons near the top-base of the neck on either side. The tail was short but boasted similar guns to what could be found on a stock Saber Tiger, but in place of the back-mounted turret or some sort of Imperial-styled gun modified in its position, there was only a large backpack, similar to a cross between the Fury and the Breaker.   
  
There were two large boosters at the rear, folded up for the time being, while a pair of crab-like arms were folded into either side. Each blade had the same red coloring as the claws, though the top was longer even when flipped back.   
  
For a few seconds, Bit glared at the monster, and found it glaring right back at him.   
  
And then, he heard it.   
  
A scream of some kind, echoing through his thoughts almost as if it were his own. It was so loud that, were it audible, his ears probably would've started bleeding. As it stood though, it still left his head hurting, as if someone had detonated some sort of bomb in his brain.   
  
_... I see.   
  
_There was a surge of something like fire in the back of his thoughts, lasting for only a fraction of a second. After that, the pain was gone, the scream muted and everything seemed to return to normal. It was unnerving to say the least, and afterward, the mutant Tiger seemed to twitch annoyedly. Slowly, it began to turn in full towards the Liger Zero, possessed of an almost human - almost _military_ posture.   
  
"What the hell _is_ that thing?" Bit asked aloud.   
  
_What happens when you try taking a Saber Tiger back to its ancestral form and put a normal human in control of it,_ Zeke answered bluntly, his Voice as intense as the fire that had just raced through Bit's mind only a few seconds before. _I haven't seen one in a long time..._   
  
"That's nice," Bit replied sarcastically. "Got any tips for beating it?"   
  
_Don't see why they changed its natural weaponry out though...   
  
_"_Did you completely miss the question_?!" Bit snapped out.   
  
_Just avoid the teeth and claws. All of them,_ Zeke replied as if someone had just slapped him.   
  
The Tiger's claw-arms snapped out and flipped their blades forward. The claws on its feet lit up in kind, surrounded by a red aura as bloody in tone as the claws themselves. With that, the artificial Sleeper and the Liger Zero Kaiser roared and lunged at one another...

* * *

It was approaching late afternoon by now. The people outside the fortified walls of Champton, in the actual _city_ that was built around it, were akin to a bustling mob. Almost everyone - even some children - looked as if they'd been shellshocked by some kind of experience that really couldn't be described adequately with simple words. Those that didn't seemed either revent or oblivious.   
  
"**_GIVE IT BACK!_**"   
  
"**_I FOUND IT FIRST!_**"   
  
"**_MINE!_**"   
  
Case in point, the three men, two large and one slightly smallish, who were brawling around for what looked like a datapad. They were easily recognizable against the background of people in this area of the city, decked out in horrifically unfashionable yellow jackets, with odd hair for all three and fur-rims on their sleeves, collars and each boot. As it stood though, the Tigers Team was the last thing on her mind. Including any thoughts of how in the _hell_ three utterly inept clods like them had actually made it into the city without being murdered by bandits along the way.   
  
No, Naomi Fluegel's thoughts were more focused and disciplined than that. Without even acknowledging the Tigers Team or the dozens of people clustering through the streets in a haze all around her, she approached the central fountain and then turned around. This left her facing the fortress in all its colossal glory. From the thick battle-proven walls to the gigantic central buildings that blocked their way up into view, each one a bit uglier and rougher around the edges than the one before it.   
  
_"Damn,"_ she thought as simply as was possible. Inside the fortress walls, the buildings had never seemed quite so imposing and large, but viewed from the outside, one got an all too clear perspective of their scaling. Champton itself didn't exactly boast very many high-rises aside from the fortress, but the best position was so high that she'd have trouble hitting anything close enough to start scaling or clawing the walls.   
  
_"So much for holding the fort on my own,"_ she mused. It had been something of a stupid notion right off the bat, but it hadn't seemed like a particularly horrid idea at the time. She wasn't exactly the type to trust people - the more of them that had to be trusted, the more of them that could potentially screw up. Few people were ever trustworthy in her eyes, both on and off the battlefield.   
  
_"I can still do some good though. If I take point at the northeast corner, I could probably cover about one half to a third of the city... Ammo'll be a problem though..."   
  
_Like any sane sniper, Naomi knew that she wasn't fit for slugging it out in the thick of a battle. Her place was either at the sidelines or behind enemy lines, picking Zoids off from a relatively safe distance and then trying like hell to avoid getting shot when doing it. She could hold her own reasonably well - if she really _had_ to - but there were plenty of Zoids out there capable of gutting a Gun Sniper to bits in close range combat. Her weapons weren't even that good for fighting at medium ranges either.   
  
One thing that most people fail to take into account of snipers is that they're focused. People who get behind the scope tend to be so intensely geared towards shooting at long ranges that, when they enter a situation where they have to find the perfect vantage point and fire from it, they can easily forget the rest of their surroundings.   
  
Which was exactly why Naomi didn't even notice the girl standing off to her right until a hand waved in front of her eyes. At that, she had to literally beat back the impulse to fling out a backhand or a karate chop and go running for something to be used as a weapon. Suffice to say, she succeeded in doing so, and instead of committing a random act of violence, she simply clenched her fists for a fraction of a second, then looked back down and to the side.   
  
"It _is_ you!" The girl replied almost impishly, the bonnet-looking hat on her head almost jumping off at her surprise. She was a lesson in contrast to Naomi, as far as clothes and even hair went. Where Naomi had managed to acquire a decent red-and-black jumpsuit, along with her old black boots, this girl was decked out in an outfit that looked almost as if she were a college-aged schoolgirl. A plain sweatjacket with the hood pulled back, pleated skirt down to just above the knees and sneakers. With knee-length socks that had been scrunched down to just above the ankle. She had black hair, relatively pale skin and looked as if she were only barely ready to qualify as a college freshman - if that.   
  
"... Uh..." She dumbly sounded out in response to the younger girl, who was also close to a half a head shorter.   
  
"You don't recognize me?" The girl asked, unphased in the slightest by the fact that Naomi had, apparently, forgotten who she was.   
  
"Sorry?" Naomi asked, thinking for a few seconds before-   
  
**[**_"Sorry, Naomi... We really let you down today."   
  
"That's alright," she replied simply enough to the two, ignoring the fact that they'd bowed their heads in apology. "I was the one who got knocked out in the end, so it was my battle to lose."   
  
Both of them stared at her briefly.   
  
"But I'm sorry too... This team battle thing's not for me after all," she explained, calmly folding her arms under her chest with a slow nod. It wasn't the truth of course, she was just trying to let them down easy. They were such nice girls, after all... Even if they were almost pathetically new. "Not yet, anyway. Besides, you two were in over your heads, so it's no surprise what happened," she added, and it was the truth.   
  
"Do you..." One started a bit uncertainly.   
  
"Think we have any chance of becoming any good at all?" The other finished in the same way.   
  
"Give it some time. Couple o' years and you might even become as good as me," she lied again, if only to give them some hope for their own future. The two seemed untalented in the slightest, but they deserved the chance to prove themselves. After all, she hadn't exactly been one of the best when she'd been starting out either...   
  
"Just give it some time."_**]**   
  
There were a few seconds of pause as Naomi stared at the girl, recognition dawning on her with each passing instant.   
  
"Claire Newton?"   
  
"_You do remember me_!" The girl practically squeeked out, looking half-ready to jump up and down.   
  
"Err... How've things been for you and Phoebe?" She asked somewhat hesitantly. Nowadays, it seemed like almost everyone had probably lost a relative or something along those lines, no matter who or what they were.   
  
"She's fine!" Claire cherped out, only to continue before Naomi could even breathe in the air to speak. "We took your words to heart, Naomi! We actually made it all the way to Class B before everything went... Downhill, and stuff," she explained. "And we've even had some pretty amazing battles too!"   
  
_"A.K.A. wins by the skins of your teeth,"_ Naomi left unsaid for the time being. She knew how it was for a rookie.   
  
"And we were only a few wins from making it into Class A, too!"   
  
_"Now **there's** a surprise..."   
  
_"And we've even managed to become pretty good shots since we started out. Phoebe can hollow out a quarter at a mile, and I've gotten to where I can knock out a falling soda can before it even hits the ground at half that..."   
  
_"Wonder how long that took?"_ Naomi mused, only passingly interested in the girl's tales. Considering that she only had so long before nightfall, she wasn't particularly regretful about telling this to her.   
  
"I'm sorry, Claire, but I'm busy right now," she bluntly explained. For all of a quarter second, that enlarged smile remained on the girl's already bright face, then slowly began to dim and fade away into a glum, knowing look.   
  
"You spoke to them too, didn't you?" She asked.   
  
"... Yes," Naomi answered bluntly, deciding it best to avoid cushioning anything for now.   
  
"... Grampa said that tonight wasn't going to be good," she mumbled out, glancing down at Naomi's feet for the time being.   
  
"It probably won't," Naomi replied without missing a beat. With that, she turned back to look at the fortress, tongue in cheek before an idea struck her.   
  
"Do you and Phoebe still pilot Gunsnipers?" She asked, not even looking at the girl.   
  
"Yeah. Why?"   
  
"I think I may have a job for you and your sister..."

* * *

There was a clash of red against gold - buzzsaw-like projectiles went flying aimlessly and vulcan fire rang through the Dome's central hangar. Structure yeilded and two feline gods wrestled back and forth, little more than a mass of gold and black, lashing claws and swinging blades. Somewhere along the line, a triple impact cannon was fired, and one of the two staggered away in a daze, its head smoking in three places at once, though none of its armor had actually been damaged at all.   
  
"Son of a bitch," Bit sputtered out annoyedly.   
  
A half-second later, there was a roar and golden-glowing teeth snapped shut on thin air. A black mutant Tiger leapt to the side, one of its claws snatching out at the Kaiser's head. If Zeke had been bonded, the Organoid probably would've been fast enough to dodge out of the way even if Bit couldn't. As it stood though, the blonde had little choice but to do it himself, practically heaving forward on the controls as if it were _his_ head about to be crushed into a metallic pulp.   
  
Suffice to say, the claws ended up missing their mark, scraping across the top of the Liger's head but failing to really do any damage.   
  
The warped Tiger landed with a sideways skid and a growl, while the Kaiser brought its head back up with an equally contemptuous sound in reply.   
  
"_A little help here would be nice_," he pointed out, opening fire with the vulcans and triple impact cannon. If it were an official Zoid battle, he would've been aiming for the thing's neck or shoulders. It was for keeps though, and every shot was aimed specifically at the cockpit. For all the good it did though, he might as well have thrown one of his boots at the thing and done a one-man conga line off a cliff. At most, the Tiger was a little annoyed and one of its optics looked as if it had a few thin cracks.   
  
_I'm **trying**,_ Zeke grit out in reply. The Organoid now hovered somewhere above the fighting, optics dimmed in certain places as if narrowed in concentration.   
  
Whatever choice words Bit had to that, he kept to himself. Between dodging away from another slashing foreclaw, batting pincers aside left and right, trying to mount a counterattack and sputtering out profanity when it didn't work, he wasn't really able to bother with Zeke's seeming inability to just fuse with the Kaiser and be done with it.   
  
There was another surge of mental fire at some point in this melee, just as both buster blades slashed down and managed to finally knock out the Tiger's pincer-arms, both of which fell away at an elbow joint. The beast didn't even seem phased by it, instead lunging forward and smacking the Liger right in the chin with a claw. Bit felt his weight swinging up against the harness, but instead of getting sea sick like a rookie, he reacted as only a veteran could.   
  
The Liger's claws, still its primary weapons, swiped out in a lethal clap around the Tiger's head. Bit felt morbidly satisfied at the ensuing crumple of alloy and glassteel, but found himself struggling to keep the other Zoid in the Kaiser's grasp only a second later. With all of its weight, the Liger dragged the Tiger down to where its colossal teeth began to stab into the flooring of the hangar, but the monster just wouldn't stay down.   
  
There was an ear splitting scrape of armor against the Liger's claws, and Bit felt himself pushed down into his seat by his own momentum. His view wasn't wide enough that he could see exactly what the Tiger had pulled, but pilot intuition was enough to conclude that the thing had jarred its head free and thrown itself into a headbutt.   
  
The Liger Zero struggled into an uneasy recovery, stumbling several steps back as the Tiger roared, its war cry underscored by a third surge of mental fire, which itself seemed to carry a tone of panic-stricken insanity that was as distant as an echo.   
  
_Remind me to teach you how to block out your thoughts,_ Zeke bitterly ordered a second or two later. Bit could swear that he heard something akin to strain in the Organoid's voice, but didn't exactly have time to contemplate it.   
  
As relentless as it was without self-preservation, the Tiger stormed forward with a howling snap of its jaws. Fangs that looked as if they could rip chunks off of the Panzer came within inches of doing so to the Kaiser, and Bit felt his stomach twist at the sight of it happening only a foot in front of him at most. He had avoided by simply jumping backwards, but he couldn't keep ceding ground forever - not if he actually wanted to _survive_ this.   
  
Without even gritting his teeth or hunching forward, Bit brought the blades to bear once again, swiping out with each one and managing to rake them across the Tiger's backpack, though this only managed to scrape off the armored plate that had formerly been concealing the buzzsaw launchers.   
  
Said launchers promptly opened fire. Sparks flew everywhere and Zeke's mental presence shifted into outright shock and concern - the mental fire returned in an instant.   
  
The Liger's vulcan pods ceased functioning almost automatically, both due to the fact that oversized buzzsaw blades were sticking out of them at odd angles. Several more had become lodged in the Zero's left shoulder, and another still was sliding back out of a foreleg.   
  
Unfortunately for Bit though, he had no time to actually notice the new damage. Instead, he found himself reeling, screaming in a pain that felt as though his head were about to explode from the inside out. His mind threatened an automatic shutdown in an act of self-preservation, and his body shook about violently as if wracked with tremors and bleeding internally. Finally, his lungs ran out of air and his screaming turned into choked gasps and coughs, with the urge to throw up growing stronger by the second.   
  
The reason was simple, and it was all too clear. A single stream of thought, belonging to a consciousness that was neither his nor Zeke's. It was human and inhuman all at once. Tortured, suicidal, broken and howling with the kind of madness that such things bring. The emotions it conveyed were horrific, but the message itself-   
  
_"**KILL ME!!!**"   
  
_**[**_"What kind of prototype?"   
  
"It's called the King Tiger..."_**]**   
  
- was disturbing even without them.   
  
Bit heaved forward, wracked with memories that didn't belong to him - flashes of someone else's life. The man's history, from early childhood to this very instant, blurred by him in a matter of seconds, and before he knew it, he was standing in the middle of an empty hospital room.   
  
It was suffocating, even more so than it had been when the wave had first broken through. The air was as stale and clean as could be, and yet within a matter of seconds, the peace was shattered. Guards, much the same as the ones he had personally killed so often today, filtered in after a set of doctors in full-on surgical gear. They were having to restrain a suitably large, well-built man who looked to be in his prime. He had brown hair, several rather large scars and wore a now-tattered looking uniform with the Rommel Corp's logo emblazened on its shoulders.   
  
Suffice to say, he wasn't going peacefully.   
  
A few minutes ticked by as the guards forced him onto the operating table, finally knocking him out cold with some kind of pistol-shaped injector being gouged into the base of his neck. Time warped after that, and maybe only a second later, it all cut to a view of one of the surgeons operating a disturbingly accurate bone saw of some kind, slowly lowering it towards the top of the man's head...   
  
**_SNAP OUT OF IT!   
  
_**Reality caved back in on itself, and within an instant, Bit heaved forward against the safety harness, feeling someone else's tears streaking down his cheeks as the Liger leapt away on its own accord. His breathing was labored at best, gagging at times as he sought to recover from what must have been a minute or so without any oxygen at all, yet something automatically forced him to look back. The Liger turned accordingly in time to see three glowing buster blades snapping shut around the King Tiger's head from a hole in the floor.   
  
Bit's body jolted about unwillingly as the blades lit up, and the King managed a half-roar of defiant glee before a sudden egg beater-like twist of the blades cut it off. Literally.   
  
The Tiger's severed head bounced around between all three blades for all of a quarter of a second before the bursting hum and bright glow of a charged particle beam wiped it from existence. The beam slammed into the hangar's ceiling barely a moment later and kept going, until a path had been cleared all the way to the roof of the Dome.   
  
Bit cringed inwardly as the third presence left his mind, the scream fading away with it and the pain dying as well. The memories that had briefly threatened to overwhelm him into sudden death faded away shortly afterward, leaving him with nothing but a traumatized blur in its place.   
  
"... The hell?"   
  
The blades in the floor withdrew out of sight, and were instead replaced by the sudden ripping of metal. Something large tore up into view in their place, and a moment later, there were a pair of crashes against the floor nearby. Bit's eyes tracked it every inch of the way, and even if he weren't half-choking, his jaw still would've sagged uncontrollably at the sight before him.   
  
It was something he hadn't laid eyes on in months. Metallic armor with a slightly lavendar tint to it, with optics that blazed an almost hellish blue and two sets of arms. A flexible tail, a tyrannosaur's head and thick, powerful legs that seemed as if they could come unhinged on a whim.   
  
For a time, he and the Kaiser just stared at it, and he instinctively knew that both it and its pilot did the same. In their own sort of way, they were almost sizing each other up and then...   
  
A comm-screen flipped on at the bottom center of the monitor.   
  
"You've gotten stronger," Vega Obscura commented with a vague look, his eyes somewhat clouded and a smile on his face.   
  
"So've you, runt," Bit Cloud replied in kind, grinning like a complete idiot as what looked like lightning streaked up into the air nearby, touching down on the Berserk Fury's head and shifting into another familiar form. It was Specular.   
  
**Even now.   
  
**_Not even close.   
  
_Zeke slipped down from his hover, finally coming to stand on the Liger's own head with an ethereal golden glow about him. Almost at the instant this could be seen, the buzzsaws still lodged in the Liger's vulcans and shoulder liquified and fell away. The damage promptly mended itself in an instant.   
  
The silent feeling of camaraderie to follow didn't last long though. After a number of moments, the Kill Tiger's body finally fell over, while both Zeke and Specular snapped their gazes up towards the ceiling.   
  
Through the hole, two things could clearly be seen. The first was a green bolt, blazing overhead towards the very center of the continent. The second was a black one, howling in like a demon king returning to Hell to reclaim his throne.   
  
"We're about to have a little company," Vega reported bluntly, and Bit could see his eyes unfog as he said it. The vague look was gone now, replaced only by tense anticipation and nervousness. To be honest, Bit couldn't blame him one bit.   
  
And then, the mindgames started. A transmission, audio-only across all wavelengths.   
  
"Total slaughter, total slaughter..."   
  
Both pilots tensed. Metal started sheering like tin foil above them. He was obviously taking his time...   
  
"I won't leave... A single man alive..."   
  
The Dome rattled.   
  
"La-di da-di die... Genocide..."   
  
Both Organoids growled out ferally, and the Zoids did the same. More ripping, more tearing, more rattling.   
  
"La-di da-di dud... An ocean of blood..."   
  
The floor was rattling beneath their feet, and then, finally...   
  
"Let's begin..."   
  
The ceiling nearby shattered open like glass, burning bits of debris flying everywhere. Any Zoids caught in the path of the black bolt that caused it simply ceased to exist, and although it ended in only a second or two at most, it seemed to stretch for an eternity to both Bit and Vega alike. The floor shook one last time, warping beneath a new pair of feet, each one with four lethal looking talons, and each one belonging to the demonic killing machine that had single-handedly annihilated Garnhelm Base, and the more than 10,000 men and women who had been present when it happened.   
  
"The killing time..."   
  
Kale Obscura had arrived.   
  
All _Hell_ was about to break loose... _

End Chapter Five

* * *

_**Author's Note:** Hopefully, I didn't cram too much into that x.X The Liger Zero Kaiser was also a bit of a bitch to describe since I'm not used to doing 'SHINY SHINY GOOD!' descriptions and it was almost exclusively in Bit's POV. Another toughy was The Fall, and Kale's little intro...  
  
And yes, he was singing XD  
  
As for Phoebe and Claire, if you can't remember them: They were those two rookie Gunsniper pilots that Naomi used as cannon fodder in her first battle with the Blitz Team. I don't remember if they were _actually_ named or not, but I vaguely remembered enough of their appearances to make use of 'em... I think. If anyone knows where I could find a screencap of those two, I'd much appreciate it o.o;  
  
And **NO!** Bit is _not_ becoming godlike. He's _better_, yes, but the moment he becomes unstoppable by _anyone_ is the moment I find a convenient way to kill him. 'Nuff said.  
  
**Kegger007:** There were only ever three Geno Saurer prototypes, but you were at least right about it driving people insane . Don't worry though, even if you didn't figure out who the pilot was, I'll find a way to mention his identity eventually. Hopefully, the actual battle lived up to the foreshadowing.  
  
**Akino Ame:** I just hope the fight scenes in this chapter lived up to the ones in the last one x.x It's _far_ easier for me to write two people beating the shit out of each other than it is to have two Zoids going at it. Though, as an idle 'buh' piece of info: That fight scene was more or less inspired by Spike's second brawl with Vincent in the Cowboy Bebop movie . At least in how I pictured the 'camera angles' and how they moved and all, if that makes any sense. And yeah, that line was kind of meant to be taken one of two ways: It could mean Henry... Or it could mean Vilhelm... But why would Vilhelm refer to himself as his own Acolyte? Just my way of screwing with people before trying my hand at the Big Surprise #1.  
  
Oh, and about the pale skin-purple eyes thing? _THINK!_ Van's already spelled it out for you, I've probably mentioned at least something involving WW2 in at least one prior author's note... Come on . Buuuut, if you do figure it out, don't spoil it for everyone else.  
  
**Doomsayer:** Thank you _very _much. I haven't really taken a stab at original stuff just yet, but I plan on starting my own original work after I finish this fanfic series. Hopefully I'll be able to get it published... And if you think I'm good, go read Zinou's stuff if you haven't already. Trust me o.o It's t3h g00d.  
  
**Father Malvado:** Armored Codpieces = The proof that Harry isn't as dumb as most people think XD  
  
**Cynical Chaos:** That or most of its readers are just in the Silent Majority. That said, it's fun to torture the heroes . They make such wonderful punching bags...  
  
And as for IT: No, you're not dense. I'm actually surprised that people didn't see it coming since I tend to suck royal donkey anus when it comes to pulling off surprises o.o; Although I'm damn glad this one came off without much of a hitch :D  
  
Anywho, thanks for the comments people o.o Sh33p out, and see ya next time. 


	6. Racing the Night

  
  
**Foreword:** Soundtrack is as follows.  
  
**Scene One:** The Matrix - Neodammerung  
**Scene Two:** Requiem for a Dream - Main Theme  
**Scene Three:**  
Zoids - Zoid Eve's Theme   
Zoids - Raven's Theme   
G Gundam - Intense Battle  
**Scene Four:** The Two Towers - The King of the Golden Hall  
**Scene Five:** G Gundam - Intense Battle  
**Scene Six:**  
Hack Sign - Obsession(Long Version)   
Hack Sign - Aura(Evil)   
Rurouni Kenshin - The Last Wolf Suite(3:25 - 4:37)

* * *

**

Tides of Darkness  


** Racing the Night   
  
For all of three seconds, the entire central hangar fell absolutely, bone breakingly silent. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, nobody in their right mind even blinked as the Geno Maxis' hellishly red optics lit up, focused specifically on the Liger Zero Kaiser. Those three seconds burned themselves into Bit Cloud's memories as if they were meant to be an eternity. In the time it took for them to pass, he felt himself run through every possible emotion for this situation.   
  
First came terror. The kind of fear that he had learned only one or two months ago, when he'd first seen the kind of unrelenting horrors that the Zoid in front of him, along with its maniacal pilot and genocidal Organoid, were capable of. Then came resignation. It was the kind of acceptance of his very likely fate that had driven him to say yes - the acceptance to destiny that had allowed him to survive being submerged in lava and buried alive by it.   
  
And then, after that, at the start of the very third second, he felt something swell up in his stomach. Like a fire from within, it burned hot, traveling through every inch of his body in the process. He felt it spark at the tips of his toes, quiver in his knees and force his heart to pound its way up his throat, into his head and all the way to his brain. It was a feeling of defiance that he had, in all likelihood, never felt before in his life.   
  
At the end of those three seconds, the world became nothing but a tunnel, and every winding path within lead right to the Zoid in front of him.   
  
"I'm not afraid of you anymore," he heard himself say, though he never actually realized that he'd given the mental command to say it.   
  
Liger and Geno both roared at one another, and without even acknowledging the presence of anything else in the entire world, the two Zoids lunged forward. The speeds at which they moved weren't even recognizable beyond vague blurs and the bright glare of booster engines at full capacity. Within fractions of the fourth second, the two hit each other and became even less identifiable than that - little more than a violent clash of gold against black, sometimes woven in with booster flares and viciously glowing claws, blades and teeth.   
  
It ended less than two seconds in when a golden bolt of energy shot through the side of the Maxis and tore back out, leaving the Zoid to howl in pain. A blue streak followed suit, and before Bit even recognized what he was doing, he had ducked the Liger down in time to avoid a swinging blow from a deceptively flexible, and heavily armored tail.   
  
The blow connected with the side of the Maxis' head, and for the first time since he'd seen the thing, it staggered back, looking almost undamaged aside from a rather large dent in the side of its black head.   
  
"You shouldn't've done that, runt," Bit heard Kale gritting out irritably.   
  
"And why not?" Vega retorted sharply, and Bit could see him sneering like a pit bull as he said it. "Because you can't handle having the odds thrown back in your face?"   
  
"I'll get to you when I'm done with Blondie. You don't even matter anymore," Kale replied with a tone as smooth and cold as ice. "So run along w-"   
  
"**_SHUT THE FUCK UP!_**" Vega blurted out, and for the first time in his life, Bit looked at the channel he still had to the Fury's cockpit in time to see a truly imposing expression on the boy's face. If he didn't think of Vega as a pure ally and friend at this point - almost as if the kid was his own little brother - he would've been scared shitless by it. It was because that imposing expression consisted of bared teeth that almost looked like fangs right now, with eyes slowly hazing into that vague, somewhat reglective appearance, the one where he knew that Vega was using the Micro Sworders.   
  
He could see Kale's outline in the boy's eyes, but whatever his expression was in response to Vega's outburst, he couldn't make out.   
  
"You don't have the right to tell me I don't matter anymore, Kale, not when it's the other way around," Vega bit out, only to continue. "You're just a fucking spoiled _brat_ with a fancy Zoid, a bit of skill and an Organoid. All you're concerned with is getting your own sadistic, _pathetic_ kicks out of intimidating and murdering other people! You don't have the right to do _anything_ anymore!" He declared, and Kale's silence was as telling as a violently enraged scream would've been in its place.   
  
"Sooooo, li'l ol' Veggie-kins thinks he's a big man now?" Kale finally seethed out.   
  
"I _told you_ to _shut up_, Kale," Vega replied within a hundredth of a second after his older brother finished speaking. The Maxis slowly arced its head towards the Fury, and the Liger, either out of acknowledgement or simple curiosity did the same. Still, Vega kept speaking.   
  
"You can't see the big picture, you god damned moron. You're _obsolete_. You're nothing but a serial killer now, a mass murderer with as much dirt on his soul as Prozen or Hiltz themselves. _You don't matter anymore_," he said, "and _I'm_ not sitting this one out."   
  
Finally, he turned towards Bit, though the blonde knew almost instantly that it was nothing but a gesture. Vega's eyes were still fogged - he was probably looking at the entire potential battlefield right now.   
  
"Bit," he began, just as the Berserk Fury's buster arms flipped forward, spinning with nothing but malicious intent reflected in the Zoid's optics. "Let's take him _out_."   
  
"Fine by me," Bit replied with even more defiance than he'd already had. With that, both he and the Liger turned to face the Geno Maxis.   
  
"Welcome to the gateway, Kale Obscura," he whispered out, more to himself than anyone else. The very thought of the words coming out of his mouth sent a vile shiver up his spine, and brought a sinister gleam to his eyes.   
  
"The gateway to _Hell_."   
  
The pause ended with a massive shockwave of thunder ringing through all three pilots' ears, just as three bolts of energy - one gold, one blue and one black - raced by, with the first two ganging up on the third. Mental war cries rang through all of their thoughts, and within nanoseconds, the three had imploded through a wall and carried their battle out of sight.   
  
Nothing else was said, and the Zoids didn't even roar either.   
  
They simply attacked. It was almost like watching a hellborn ballet, with the Liger Zero and Geno Maxis charging one another while the Fury brought up the Kaiser's rear. At near point blank, Bit lashed out, lunging for the Maxis' right leg. Almost on pure instinct, Kale jumped the attack in the same way he'd done the first time around - but this time, he didn't get a change to break the Liger's back. Vega cut him off in an instant, with the Fury's buster blades swinging wildly through the air.   
  
The Maxis dodged even this though. With saurian agility that went beyond compare, it twisted and rolled in mid-air, ducking under both sets of blades and landing perfectly in a crouch. Killing blade snapped forward, the Geno leapt up and Vega sidestepped with perfect timing, the Fury's small and easily neglected forearms grappling onto the other Zoid's neck and throwing it back down to the ground. The Maxis hit, yes, but Kale was still able to swing its tail up and, in an act of flexibility that was simply impossible for most Zoids, rolled over onto its back. The tail and feet both smacked the Fury across the chin and cheek, sending it stumbling away while the Maxis rolled back up to its feet.   
  
Bit jumped back into the frey before Kale even had a change to recover, and the Maxis was almost instantly knocked back onto its hind legs to the point that only its tail kept it from being bowled over again. Claws stuck to the thing's shoulders - he knew not to let them open. Ultimate Xs weren't the only things that could learn an opponent's moves.   
  
"Nice _try_," Kale responded without missing a beat, swinging the Geno's left leg up and kneeing the Liger in the gut. The claws slipped back, but before the Zero could fell over, Bit activated the boosters and righted himself, both claws smacking viciously across the Maxis' head on the way down, and even managing to avoid the killing blade in the process.   
  
Both pilots lashed out with extending weaponry. The buster blades lashing into the Maxis' shoulders and the Geno's talon-packing hands grappling onto the Liger's biceps. Each weapon glowed bitterly, that hatred could easily be seen reflecting in both the Zoids' optics and their pilots' eyes.   
  
And then, Vega rejoined the brutality as a pair of light-powered charged particle beams slammed into the Maxis' side and jolted it into letting go of the Kaiser's legs, causing the killing blade to rake across the top of the Liger's head in the process, shaving off a thin layer of armoring. While Bit recovered, Vega kept on the attack, battering Kale's side until it started to smoke, and if the armor wasn't already black, scorch marks would've been blatantly visible on it. After about a second and a half of this though, the Geno lunged forward and out of the Fury's beams, skidding sideways to a halt as Kale popped open the Zoid's shoulders to reveal both pulse cannons and the micro-missile launchers.   
  
One Obscura fired, the other was ready in advanced. Missiles screamed through the air at several times the speed of sound, interwoven with plasma bolts, and both assaults simply ended up crashing into a reddish-pink wall of energy. The Fury had one buster claw arm stuck out and spread wide towards the Maxis, rotating slowly as it stomped forward. The other buster claw plunged into the flooring and slammed shut, ripping out a large chunk of it and then powering up.   
  
The shield dropped, Kale ducked to the side and Vega threw the second buster claw forward, firing its particle cannon as he did so. Not only did a lethally powered charged particle beam come ripping out from between all three blades, a slagging chunk of near-liquified metal did too. Both ended up smacking into the Geno's head, and whatever damage they did was promptly obscured by the fact that the metal covered it to the point that nothing was visible of it anymore.   
  
"Let's see how you handle blind-fighting _now_," Vega challenged, and the Fury came howling in right then and there.   
  
The response was a terrible roar, like thunder, from the Maxis, so intense that the melting steel practically blew off of its head. In a split second, the barrel in the Geno's mouth had extended. Another fraction of that same second and it had begun powering up and-   
  
"Oh no, ya don't!"   
  
- Bit came charging back in, shield up. Kale was ready though, at least well enough that he was able to hurl the Maxis up off the floor and side-flip right over the Kaiser's shield ram. The nimble Geno touched back down on both feet without the slightest bit trouble or damage, but by then, Vega had closed to point blank.   
  
Sparks flew overywhere as the Fury's right set of buster claws smashed into the side of the Maxis' neck and head, obviously aiming to decapitate the thing. Kale recovered from this too though, and before the Maxis had even finished taking the hit, its body jerked about and that whip-like tail came swinging in. Again though, Vega was ready in advance, and the Fury's own tail smashed against the Geno's with enough force that more sparks scraped away between the two and with that, Bit again came stampeding in.   
  
Strike Laser Claws smashed into the back of the Geno's right knee, jerking the whole thing around to the point that it was almost facing Vega. With that, Bit went into the equivelent of a death roll and the Fury's left buster claw set came up in an uppercut towards the Maxis' head...   
  
Kale didn't dodge or block.   
  
Sparks and a few metal teeth went flying, along with paper-thing armor shavings, and the Geno Maxis almost looked ready to fall over backwards as the Liger Zero kept trying to rip off its leg. Before Vega or Bit could do much else though, Kale had activated all of his boosters - from the ones in the legs to the ones on the back, and taken to the air. The Kaiser slipped free and fell back down on all fours as the Maxis blew up overhead, barely arcing back down in time to avoid hitting the hangar's ceiling before it started to move in a circle.   
  
The main battle hit a pause, and that was when one of the doors into the hangar ripped open.   
  
Three familiar bolts of light streaked through, garbled screams sounded through his mind in a language Bit couldn't even hope to understand and all three Organoids seemed to briefly fade out of their energy-based forms. Shadow's wings whipped out like those of a demon, and Specular came bolting in without even acknowledging them. The blue Organoid's head crashed into the black one's stomach, and Bit vaguely registered the sound of an annoyed grunt before Shadow kicked her away, only to be grabbed from behind by Zeke.   
  
The golden Organoid roared, the blue one lunged back into the frey and grappled onto Shadow from the front. At once, both lit up with their signature energies, rapidly forming all three Organoids into nothing more than a blue-and-gold lightning bolt, which itself promptly arced up towards the ceiling and came to a grinding halt. Before Bit's eyes could even follow the thing's movements, it had coalesced into a blindingly bright blue-and-gold sphere before bolting straight down into the floor and punching through it as if it weren't even there.   
  
A second later, a thunderous shockwave rattled its way through the entire Dome from below, the results of something that Bit was now only accutely aware of.   
  
"_Shadow_!" He heard Kale say, then looked up from the hole in the floor in time to see the Geno Maxis break from its circle and head straight towards the floor, obviously intent on punching back out.   
  
Where Bit was too slow to react, Vega was three steps ahead of everyone. In much the same way that the Berserk Fury had sidekicked one of its opponents the first time that Bit had seen it, the thing now repeated that tactic on the Maxis. Kale, apparently more preoccupied with Shadow's plight than anything else, didn't even see it coming.   
  
The kick connected with a resounding crack of metal on metal, and the Geno shrieked in pain while flying off to the side. Boosters cutting out automatically, the nimble Zoid crashed on its hip, skidded backwards through another secondary hangar's door and sprang back back up.   
  
"Here he comes!" Vega reported, even though Bit couldn't actually see from this angle. He knew what to do anyway, and as Kale came rushing back out of the hangar with the Maxis running at the speed of a Lightning Saix for the Fury, its forehead blade charged to the point that it was visible as little more than a silver glow.   
  
Whether Kale had intended on mutilating the Fury with a single swift stab or gunning it down half-way and ramming the blade through its cockpit, it didn't much matter. Boosters flared and the Liger Zero Kaiser again played intercept, crashing into the Maxis from the side and tackling it into the air. Kale's initial gunshots missed pathetically, but he wasn't finished yet.   
  
A kick to the stomach jolted the Liger loose and sent dents an inch deep into its belly armor, before a Strike Laser Talon raked across the side of its head and threw it away like so much garbage. The Liger backflipped and landed on all fours, the Geno slid down artistically onto its feet and didn't even skid. Pulse cannons fired, but Bit wasn't the target this time, and as Vega had rushed in to try and keep Kale completely off balance, the Fury'd taken a half-dozen hits to its chest and head, resulting in scorched and smoking armor with a few holes here and there.   
  
Bit simply fired his vulcans and triple impact cannon, returning the favor in kind on Vega's behalf. The Maxis took every hit he had to offer and stumbled sideways because of it, but barely a second ticked by before the Geno's particle gun had extended into view again. Before Bit could even finish wrapping his mind around it, the thing had fired, and instead of its somewhat narrow beam hitting a wall or anything else, it curved sharply towards him at a near-right angle.   
  
He was so quick to put up his shield that some of his own shots ended up hitting the thing from the inside. Blindingly bright silver hit what looked like liquid gold with such force and intensity that Bit was nearly blinded even through his shield and the cockpit glass. For several tense seconds, the Liger Zero Kaiser was pushed back, fighting so hard against the beam that its claws scraped foot-deep trenches into the floor and then-   
  
"... That's... That's _insane_!"   
  
Kale's voice. Afraid?   
  
"It's only insane if it doesn't _work_, _remember_?!"   
  
Vega.   
  
Bit's eyes snapped down to the window with Vega's face in it, only to see that the boy bore one of the single most viciously pleased smiles he had ever seen. Fractions of a second later, he felt the pressure on the shield come to a close, and looked up in time to see the Berserk Fury, hovering up near the ceiling, both buster claws spread out and opened wide, charged particle cannon extended and all three finished powering up - and all of them aimed right at the Maxis, even as Kale arced his own beam towards the other Zoid.   
  
"... _Fuck_," Bit muttered.   
  
With that, the world went white.

* * *

There was only silence for a number of seconds as she made her way up onto the very edge of the mesa, only to turn right back around and sling her club up onto her shoulder in the process. She'd made the entire climb with only one hand and a bit of passing effort, after all.   
  
The sight she was greeted with though, was one that most people would've greeted with dread and horror. For her though, it held an almost eerie beauty, and an equally haunting sense of familiarity as the Dome's eastern-most side and bottom exploded open around a hellishly bright set of charged particle beams. All three lanced down into the ground at an angle, ripping burning away part of a leg just by proximity in the process.   
  
Maybe by accident, maybe by design, the beams all ended up converging on a single point, where they proceeded to knife and burn into the grime and dirt until finally hitting something, possibly a crystal. Either way, whatever it was promptly exploded, and as the blast warped its way up out of the ground, the damaged leg ripped near its base, spiraling all the way into the dirt. The shockwave of color to follow almost resembled the firing of a Gravity Cannon, in both appearance and some effects. Pieces of the Dome's outer structure ripped and blew away, other parts simply imploding under the force of the explosion and others still were being reduced to an almost liquified state, with the outer shell being the hardest hit of all.   
  
A secondary shockwave blew out, and where the closest part of the Dome's shell had previously been damaged in many different ways, now it simply crumpled inward like tin foil. The entire structure, however many hundreds of meters and thousands or even millions of tons of material it was made of, promptly started to tilt, wobble and lean in almost every direction at once. Years of research, countless technological achievements and more sacrifices and atrocities than could ever be known, were all being put to the torch.   
  
It had all been for nothing to the people now inside. Only a stepping stone for a puppet on strings and a power-craving maniac that should've stayed forgotten.   
  
Finally though, the explosion ended with one last surge of that oddly beautiful color, and then the Dome seemed to still itself for a few moments, even with numerous gaping holes in it and a missing leg. It was almost magnificent even in this state, but slowly, the remaining legs began to give away. First went the one closest to the already destroyed leg. Then two more closest to that followed, and finally the unstable creation simply toppled over, almost moving in slow motion towards the ground so far below.   
  
Fires broke out, explosions belched up out of almost every hole in its surface and by the time it hit the terrain below, it was already ablaze in its own funeral pire. Molten lava splashed everywhere around it, a visible shockwave of grime, dust and dirt spread off from the impact point, and the remaining structure lurched visibly inward, just before collapsing all together.   
  
It was a terrible sight to behold, and all too familiar as well.   
  
But something else itched the back of her thoughts. Concern. Instinctively though, she knew that the feeling wasn't her own, and that notion was backed up by a series of loud thumps behind her. They were footsteps, each one heavy enough to send a small rumble through the ground, and when they finally silenced, a long shadow cast itself over her from above and on either side.   
  
** He had that planned from the beginning,** the Ancient pointed out with a mildly disturbed tone to its Voice, its attention focused more on the fallen Dome than anything else.   
  
_ "I wouldn't be surprised if he did. That boy seems to be the only one of the whole lot who actually knows what he's doing,"_ she replied simply, not really complimenting Vega so much as she was acknowledging the truth.   
  
** Agreed.   
  
** There was a momentary pause, during which time, both Roc and Madison shifted their mutual gaze towards the dead city in the distance. In purely scientific terms, it rested precisely on Zi's North Pole, but in reality...   
  
_ "Four is slowing them down too much. He's an obstacle at this point."   
  
_** Also agreed,** Roc replied, and Madison heard the tell-tale opening of panels behind her. **We may not go _there_, but we can still help them along.   
  
** Without even giving a reply, Madison simply stuck her club up into the air and allowed Roc's own magnetic pull to carry her up and inside of its chest. The view of Hell's graveyard with the naked eye soon gave way to that same view behind the orange glow of of a 360 degree cockpit, styled in an eerily similar fashion to the one used by the Death Stinger, but still smaller, and not possessing the same obstuctive ring of metallic bits rotating all over.   
  
The floor slid shut beneath her, and her feet touched down near the base of the chair an instant later. The club, Thor's Hammer as someone had once called it, was nonchalantly set down on the floor, left to fall where it may, only to be seemingly absorbed a second later. With that, Madison sat down, feeling aged cushions giving way as if the entire seat had been made specifically to handle her - and it had. Her arms gradually rested in place, allowing her hands to sink several inches into the gel-like material at the front of each armrest, and when it was all done, a series of crystals on the top of the chair's back, followed by an odd contraption akin to a safety harness literally liquifying itself across her upper body until it resembled a kind of chestplate like those worn by medieval knights on Earth.   
  
"**Time to stop sitting on the sidelines,**" Madison said with a hundred thousand voices at once, and only one of them was actually her own.   
  
Silver light enveloped the First Born, and then it was gone...

* * *

For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened but burning fires and the occasional bit of falling debris. It seemed like nothing but a graveyard, and then, after the silence had gone beyond unbearable, one particular pile near the bottom of the metallic slope that had once been the central hangar's floor began to move. Little by little, bits and pieces broke away until finally a golden like could be seen beneath several tons of rubble.   
  
An explosion of that same rubble followed a second later, sending bits and pieces of the once-imposing structure crashing into lava and cratered dirt everywhere in sight. The Zoid responsible remained hidden for a few seconds longer, until finally dropping the shield and being revealed as the Liger Zero Kaiser.   
  
"**_WHAT THE SHIT-FUCK KINDA HAIRBRAINED EXCUSE OF A PLAN WAS THAT?!_**" Cracked the voice of one Bit Cloud, looking sufficiently shaken from the whole ordeal. A few seconds later, a debris pile further up on the slope broke apart to reveal the Berserk Fury, utterly unharmed aside from a number of minor dings and scratches.   
  
"It worked, didn't it?" Vega asked breezily, utterly unphased by what he'd just done. Bit simply stared at him over the comm, his jaw starting to sag whether he wanted it or not.   
  
"That was _insane_, you little _runt_!"   
  
"It would've only been insane if it hadn't worked," Vega replied with a wave of his hand as the Fury slid down to the ground near the Liger, its buster blades folded back and steam still spewing out of its tail.   
  
For a few seconds, Bit just kept staring at him, and finally, as Vega's eyes unclouded, the pre-teen looked back with a grin that would've put Marcus Harlock to shame. Horribly.   
  
And that was when a charged particle beam ripped straight up from under the toppled dome, sweeping down between both Vega and Bit's Zoids, then plowing a trench straight into the gravity explosion's crater. In a matter of seconds, it ended, revealing a rather hideously burnt looking Geno Maxis, its armor literally liquifying on top of its structure and its head-blade missing, along with most of its teeth and one arm.   
  
"... _Okay_, so it _was_ insane," Vega muttered out, and Bit watched his eyes fog right back up as the Maxis began to stagger forward, heedless of the agony it was in.   
  
"Did you _really_ think you could take me out with one of my own moves?" Kale's voice asked, sounding haggard and stressed in a way that Bit had never heard before. It was like watching a black knight's armor fall off in the middle of a battle, only to reveal an enraged berserker who was probably twice as menacing and equally deadly.   
  
"Thought had crossed my mind," Vega admitted bluntly, the Fury's buster arms snapping forward again. Bit followed suit almost immediately, unsheathing his own from the Liger's back and putting them at full extension in the process.   
  
"_Game over_," Kale bit out, and although Bit still couldn't see his face, he knew right off the bat that he probably looked even more dangerous than he sounded. For a few seconds, nothing moved, and Bit couldn't even hear himself thinking as Kale took a deep breath so loudly that it echoed over the comm, and then...   
  
"**_SHADOW!!!_**"   
  
There was a demonic howl as not one, but three Organoids bolted up out of the rubble, each one colored differently as two fought against the third. Blue and gold clashed violently with black, and each time, they were repelled a bit harder and a bit faster than before, until finally each one fell away and resolidified to reveal Specular and Zeke, each one burnt and marred by the equivelents of bruises all over their armored bodies.   
  
The black bolt kept going higher though, until it too solidified in order to reveal a matching Organoid, its blue eyes casting nothing short of Hellfire down at the Fury and Zero both. Where Zeke and Specular were both covered with their minor scratches and scrapes though, Shadow was virtually unhindered in the slightest. His wings spread open and caught a wind that didn't exist, and his serpent-like tail snapped about like some kind of whip in the process.   
  
"_Specular_!" Vega shouted pre-emptively, bringing both secondary charged particle cannons to bear and trying to gun the black Organoid down where it hovered. Without even thinking, Bit followed his lead and-   
  
"**_IT'S SHOWTIME, ZEKE!_**"   
  
- opened fire with both vulcans, calling on Zeke almost purely as an afterthought.   
  
Both blue and gold Organoids snapped to attention the moments before they were even called, and almost as one, both cut their boosters accordingly, going into freefall as they were bathed in their own energies. Shadow seemed to take his sweet time in order to mock them, each and every incoming volley of bullets and beams with an ease that defied human comprehension. In near slow motion it seemed, a black light flooded the Organoid's eyes, exploding from the cracks between each and every panel before the wings folded in.   
  
Shadow fell, only to whip into a backflip and point himself straight down at the Maxis and bolt right into it from above.   
  
Zeke and Specular each fused into the Kaiser and Fury at nearly the same time, and almost within nanoseconds of one another, all three Zoids erupted in light. Gold from the Zero, blue from the Fury and black from the Geno Maxis. The surge of power from all three was enough to send visible ripples through the ground and nearby lava, liquifying some of the Dome's immediate structure and causing each and every one of them to heal from their previous damage in a matter of seconds.   
  
A new killing blade and arm seemed to form into existence on the Maxis as if it had been there all along, and every ding and dent, burn mark and scrape on the Liger and Fury vanished into nonexistence as well.   
  
"**_ROUND TWO!_**" Bit heard Kale declare...   
  
And then watched as the Maxis was literally blindsided out of nowhere by a silver bolt almost as large as the Elephander.   
  
There was a small shockwave of sparks and flame through the air, and the black beast went flying back into the Dome's already mutilated structure, crashing with enough force to send a shockwave through the already tortured, buckling metals and cause the whole thing to jolt over a bit from the impact. With that though, the bolt formed into a sphere, and then that sphere imploded into the magnificent form of a creature who seemed as old as Time itself.   
  
It was tall, matching the height of Zoids like the Geno Saurer and Elephander with absolute ease. Despite an obviously mechanical body, it held the organic appearance of a living creature, with the head, front legs and wings of a great eagle, even though it had an impressive crest of mirror-like feathers on its head. More of these same feathers covered the rest of its head too, save for the beak, and continued to do so all the way down to the base of its neck, giving way to what almost looked like silver-velvet fur across the rest of the body and hind legs. The wings were also covered in these feathers, save for the fact that each one had a pair of large pulse cannons at their middle joint, with a Storm Sworderesque laser blade at either side. A lion's tail lashed fiercely behind it, bristling at its tip with what looked almost like a thousand needles in place of actual hairs.   
  
But most awe inspiring of all were the thing's eyes. Each was a mixture of dull blue surrounding an intense, neon red iris, with what looked like newly formed pupils of solid white at the center.   
  
"**Your battle lies elsewhere,**" a hundred thousand Voices wracked across Bit's mind, as well as Zeke's. The blonde already knew that it had done the same for Specular and Vega too, even if neither of them held the same surge of familiarity with at least one of those Voices. "**_We_ will handle the spare.**"   
  
"... _Where_?" Bit asked, fighting the urge to glare at the First Born, but knew that it was futile to argue the point. Apparently, so did Vega.   
  
"The city," the younger of the lot of them pointed out, and even as Bit glanced down at the window, he found himself looking at Vega with his eyes fogged even more so than they were before. Bit couldn't even see the kid's pupils. "It all has to do with the city..."   
  
"The place with the red glow?" He asked glumly, wondering why he hadn't figured it out sooner.   
  
"**Yes,**" Roc and(or?) Madison answered abruptly, just as another charged particle beam blew through the Dome's structure and into the skies above. "**Now _go_!**"   
  
"Right," Bit replied, not even giving it a second thought as he brought the Liger Zero around, facing the city in the distance. Without either pilot realizing it, their Organoids had already shut off the channel to the Geno Maxis.   
  
Blades folded onto the Kaiser's back, buster arms closed on the Fury and both Zoids took off at roughly the same time, all but racing each other through Hell's own graveyard as two demigods prepared to square off behind them...

* * *

The doors slid shut and the lights dimmed as he finally looked up from a 3D layout of Champton and the fortress at its heart. Taking a long look into each of their faces, it was clear that he really hadn't been the only one to speak to the dead at all. Every single one of the people he'd summoned up had arrived with the same kind of awe-struck expression on their faces, and almost all of them had been too dazed to even notice his greetings.   
  
First and foremost among them had been Sarah Obscura. She'd arrived looking both highly disturbed, relieved, well rested and exhausted all at the same time. After that came Leyon Martin and Steven Tauros, each one looking as though they'd run a marathon and each one appearing equally as disturbed and relieved as Sarah. Then came Steven's son, Leon, who would hopefully become Harry's brother-in-law someday. He looked less winded and less disturbed than anyone so far, though he still looked as if he'd rubbed his eyes raw for some reason. Following that, Naomi Fluegel had appeared with two somewhat bubbly looking girls around Harry's own age in tow, and then came a number of other people as well.   
  
They ranged from regular pilots unattached to a squad to mechanics who needed to know what they would be in for as far as repairs went. Squad leaders were there too, and from them, the list just kept getting bigger and more prestigious, all the way up to people who were the equivelent of generals in Champton's defense forces. Even lowly teams like the Tigers were present, as were aces like the Tasker sisters, and Marry had even managed to show up - if only in a supporting role.   
  
The only ones missing were his other brothers and sisters, as well as his parents. He'd've probably thought them to be rolling in their graves, if Montgomery hadn't told him otherwise.   
  
"Alright then, I guess everyone's here," he commented, more so to himself than anyone else. "I'm guessing that all of you know why I called you here, don't you?" He asked, only to recieve a chorus of nods and mumbled acknowledgements. For a few long moments, he just stood there, staring at the lot of them before looking back down at the display.   
  
The room itself was dimly lit for a mixture of dramatic effect and for the sake of practicality. All the consoles and displays stood out more this way after all. Aside from that, it was large, and almost everyone but Harry and a few others were seated in what looked like baseball arena-styled bleachers.   
  
Finally, he spoke.   
  
"Since everybody already has some kind of idea about what's probably going to happen, I'm not going to bother explaining. Instead, we'll just cut to the chase," he explained, flipping a switch on the base of the display and causing it to put up a hologram right in front of him, displaying the same 3D view of Champton he'd been staring at for the past hour or so. "We're expecting the attack to come from just about anywhere," he began. "Because of that, standard procedure means we'd need to divide our forces equally..."   
  
Harry was starting to feel a cold sweat all over his back, but he kept going. Over the course of an hour, he laid out what little plans that he and others had been able to come up with, given the rather limited nature of their intelligence. It was all relatively simple - almost disparagingly so. Several walls of Zoids, divided to the North, South, East and West sides of the old fortress, with the actual city itself evacuated completely and left to become another random feature in the terrain.   
  
Almost a half-dozen times during the detailing of it all, Harry had almost stuttered, almost tripped over his own words and almost had that cold sweat on his back extend to cover the rest of him as well, but he'd managed to get through it with flying colors nonetheless. By the time it was over, he felt like he'd gone through five matches in the Royal Cup and been nailed by another crashing Whale King all over again.   
  
"Alright, before we continue... Anyone have any questions or recommendations?" He asked, stepping away from the display and tilting from one foot to another to try and lessen the soreness in them. Harry wasn't used to standing up so long doing absolutely nothing.   
  
For a number of seconds, everyone was silent, until finally, Naomi Fluegel raised up a hand.   
  
"Shoot," he ordered.   
  
"Put me, Phoebe and Claire Newport up on top of the base's central building," she ordered bluntly, and Harry simply nodded. Fluegel was nicknamed the Red Comet for a _reason_. She knew what she was doing and asking of him, and she obviously would've been better used in the way she'd suggested rather than being flung out on the front with everyone else.   
  
"Right. Anyone else?" He asked, glancing around only to see a familiar scarred hand being held up towards the ceiling. He knew who it was without even hearing a voice or looking down to see her face.   
  
"I have a suggestion."   
  
It was Leena Tauros. She had changed into the same kind of blue jumpsuit as almost everyone else in the city, and she wasn't wearing her glasses either.   
  
"Fire away," Harry had to mentally slap himself into saying. He already knew, at some level, what she was about to suggest.   
  
"Move everyone off the Northern wall. I can handle it myself," she stated as a fact. Several of the people seated below practically jumped out of their seats, and Leon and Steve were _both_ among them. Every single one of them had looked ready to call her insane - and Harry honestly didn't blame them one bit for that much - but every single one of them had lost whatever will they had to stand against her the moment they saw her face.   
  
The expression she had was almost enough to make a Gojulas curl up into a tiny ball and cry itself to death in a corner. Her entire face was nothing but calm and unreadable save for its intent. Even in her eyes, one could see that she had _meant_ what she'd just said.   
  
Without any further objections, Harry cleared his throat and continued, while almost everyone but Leon and Steven sat back down.   
  
"Alright... Anyone who was on the Northern wall will be spread out equally among the other three, I guess," he said with obvious unease. Leena gave a small nod, then turned and left without another word. Harry had never been more upset in his life, but he had also never been more in control of showing it.   
  
"Well, since that's... Done, I guess I only have one more thing to do and this'll be over with," he explained, literally forcing everyone's attention back to him as he flicked off the display, then turned on the regular lights. "Leon," he ordered, drawing even the older Tauros sibling's gaze as he did so. With that, Harry took a deep breath, calmed down and continued.   
  
"... I'll need you to talk to Sarah as soon as this is over. The same goes for Steven Tauros and Leyon Martin. Any questions can be asked to one of the staffers," he finished, having briefly hesitated for a few moments. Leon was someone who had always made him feel even more miniscule than his own family. It wasn't that the guy was hostile - even though he could be at times. It was that, to Harry at least, he symbolized perfection. He was tall, fit, handsome, skillful, intelligent and well versed in just about everything.   
  
It was half the reason that Harry had taken to wearing platforms whenever he'd gone to the Blitz Team's base. At least then, he could come reasonably close to looking Leon in the eye.   
  
"That's all people. You know where to go, and if I'm needed, tell one of my secretaries - unless it's _important_. In that case, you'll probably find me in the main war room. Sub-floor eight, should be easy to find," he explained simply enough, just before turning towards the nearest exit. Leyon and the Tauroses had already gotten up to chat things up with Sarah by then, and by the time he'd gotten to the door, he actually felt he'd done a reasonably good job of having to avoid any problems...   
  
"Harry!"   
  
Or not.   
  
Without even bothering to glance over his shoulder, he'd motioned for the voice's owner, his sister, to follow him out into the hallway. Thankfully, there weren't any guards in sight by the time the door shut, which was also when Harry finally turned to face her. She looked somewhat odd, wearing a plain pilot's outfit like that. Not necessarily unstylish, but still odd. Harry was used to seeing her either glammed up in that debutante wannabe outfit that most of the Champ girls tended to wear some variation of, or in the skimpy pilot's suit she had worn when battling the Blitz Team.   
  
Not to mention the distinct lack of make-up.   
  
And did she just get taller?   
  
_ "Not wearing the platforms,"_ he reminded himself absently, only to wonder why she was staring at him like he was on something...   
  
"_Well_?" She asked annoyedly.   
  
"Errr... Huh?"   
  
"Are you going to keep staring at me like I'm a stranger or do you want to know what it is I'd like to speak to you about?" She demanded with that oh-so-proper 'listen to me or die a Horrible, Agonizing and Otherwise Painful Death™' tone that only a big sister could use and get away with. That or a homicidal dictator bent on world power, whichever.   
  
"Oh. Well, go ahead then," he replied, and for the first time, actually withstood the tone she used without stepping back an inch. When they were younger, that same kind of voice could've sent him running for the hills.   
  
"I'd like to be out there with everyone else," she stated simply, bluntly and straight to the point in a _completely_ un-Marry-like kind of way. Harry's jaw promptly came unhinged.   
  
"_**ARE YOU INSANE?!**_" He demanded. "You barely even know how to handle a Zoid in _pretend battles_, let alone real ones!" He pointed out, having gotten to the point that anything related to the Z.B.C. was pretend nowadays.   
  
"_Actually_," she began with a dagger's edge to her tongue. "I took to piloting your Dark Horn earlier. I was quite adept at it," she pointed out.   
  
"That isn't the _point_! You could _die_!"   
  
"And Harry," she began with an almost morbidly sweetened tone, almost like having citrus squeezed into one's eye. "If the defensive fails, we'll probably all die anyway," she assured him, just before continuing with a far less civil attitude about her. "For every shot I fire, I might help it hold out a little longer - maybe even long enough to _win_. I don't know about you, but to me... That's _worth_ the threat of dying," she pointed out bluntly.   
  
For a long number of seconds, the two were absolutely silent. The air between them was stale, their eyes were locked and neither one looked ready to give - but Marry had a more stubborn way about her. He knew the look on her face like the back of his own hand, even more so than the look Leena'd had on earlier. She would've walked through fire if it meant getting her way about this...   
  
Unfortunately, it seemed like she would have to do just that at some point tonight. He didn't know, but he did care. Desperately.   
  
"Take care of yourself out there," he said, and that was that. There wasn't anything else needed for her to know that he'd agreed to her demands. His face sagged a bit, countered by that sinister look dancing around in her eyes.   
  
:"I'll make sure you don't regret it, Harry. You're not the only one in the family who can pilot a Zoid," she said, and very obviously meant it, just before stepping around him and walking right out of his sight all together.   
  
For a long time, Harry stood there. How long it was, he didn't know, but eventually, thought came.   
  
_ "Whatever happens... Happens,"_ he told himself, even though he hated every word of it. His mother, father and a brother had already died. His family was in shambles now, and it looked like he would probably be losing the one left who wasn't a headcase anymore sooner than he ever would have liked.

* * *

"I don't know _who_ you are..."   
  
Boosters snapped open.   
  
"And I honestly don't give a _rat's ass_..."   
  
Optics lit up into a thunderous blue.   
  
"But when you interrupt my _fun_..."   
  
Claws, teeth and a lethal blade all began to glow miniature suns.   
  
"**_YOU'VE GONE WAY OVER THE LINE!_**"   
  
Sounds like individual gunshots from a sniper rifle popped through the air. Contrasting glows reflected across ground and tarnished, burnt metal alike at speeds that human beings had trouble comprehending as anything more than numbers on paper. A microsecond later, a shockwave like thunder rang across the countryside, leaving ground to implode in a crater in every direction, ripping hundreds of tons of surface structure from what remained of the dome and sending an equal amount of molten surging about like a tidal wave in every direction. At the center of the clash, dozens of yards off the ground, a hollow sphere composed of duelling silver and black clashed with itself, letting off small planar shockwaves at every angle, until only vaccum remained between them.   
  
Like ball lightning, the sphere slowly inched about, each of its violently moving colors seeming to gain or lose the advantage in nanoseconds before finally splitting apart.   
  
Air imploded in on itself where they'd been fighting, and the silver streak bolted up above the fallen corpse of the Dome. In turn, the black streak curved back down onto it, landing with a grinding screech across the very rim that had once been the easternmost floor of the hangar. As it did so, the black light faded away into the shape of a Zoid, and then, the Geno Maxis fully materialized with a howling war cry audible for a hundred miles in every direction.   
  
But silver kept going. Like a furious angel, it curved back around, briefly seeming to sprout wings of some kind before impact came. With a screeching crash, the Maxis was jolted off of its all too narrow ledge, smoking from the left side as the silver bolt arced upward and came back around for all of a split second-   
  
Only to break away in an instant as a charged particle beam spiraled towards it.   
  
For several seconds, the chase continued, before the silver bolt curved upward and came to a stop, literally shattering apart into a million shards of fading energy to reveal the same monstrous chimaera as before. Without a sound, the beast lashed out with its forelegs, throwing a duelling pair of silver-hazed pressure waves at the incoming beam and causing it to break apart as a result. Within a few nanoseconds of this though, as the Maxis landed on both feet and made to attack again, another charged particle beam came screaming through the air, this time launched from the archangel itself.   
  
_ "Not again,"_ the Maxis' pilot had time to think to himself as the Zoid's boosters activated. With speed surpassing even a Lightning Saix or the Liger Zero Jaeger, the Geno burst forward, dodging the beam and its ensuing shockwave by precious inches and feet. The attack kept going though, striking into the remains of the Dome and promptly immolating it all over again, until only a mutilated lump remained.   
  
KNIVES!   
  
Before the warning had finished registering, the pilot had reacted. A shower of mirror-textured feather-shaped knives rained down, but only ended up hitting the ground as the Maxis barreled out of the way. Within a second of their impact, the knives exploded in unison, and although they'd dodged the projectiles, the ensuing blast threw the Geno out of the air and sent it skidding sideways for a hundred yards, halfway up a hill before it'd stopped.   
  
"**_NICE TRY, BIRD-FUCKER!_**" He impulsively screamed, acting on that same impulse as he brought the Zoid into a half-backwards jump, pointing straight at it before launching into the air. With speed that could rival a Storm Sworder, the Maxis closed in, and the Ancient responded in kind.   
  
At once, each Zoid lashed out with a choice array of melee weaponry. Claws locked, the First Born's head came within inches of being impaled and a killing blade succeeded in gouging away a few mirror-like feathers. With the impact though, the chimaera Zoid rolled and allowed the Maxis to keep going up, only to catch it in the legs with a slash from one set of wing blades as it did so.   
  
Sparks went flying, the Maxis' leg boosters briefly cut out and Shadow cursed something in Organoidian as a result. The damage healed in a hundredth of a second and the Geno flipped forward and rolled until it was level and facing the still-falling enemy, who hadn't even bothered righting himself.   
  
Without a fancy battlecry of any kind, he squeezed both sets of controls and snarled as the Zoid's shoulders flipped open. Missiles launched and were subsequently obliterated at less than half-way in a hail of darts launched from the chimaera's tail. Without even paying it any mind, he'd fired the pulse cannons afterward, and this time - he hit...   
  
And was promptly hit back in return. Each combatant took a series of shots into the forearms, and each one was utterly unphased from it. A fraction of a second ticked by and the damage was gone, yet before the mid-air flames from the explosions had even died down, they had each bolted with a pair of contrasting sonic booms.   
  
They spiralled up almost a mile over the ground and met again. Hundreds of feet beneath the clouds, the two demigods of destruction clashed, passing one another by like bolts of lightning as the heavens themselves churned and thundered above. Black passed into night, silver whipped about through the eternally dying daylight. Where they had met, a real bolt of lightning finally echoed the clash, followed almost instantly by a wave of thunder that could've rattled human bones.   
  
The second meeting was far less epic, and infinitely more personal.   
  
Where before, the meeting had been like watching lightning bolts sideswipe each other, now the two crashed in head-on, fading out of their energy forms at the last possible nanosecond and slamming into one another at speeds in excess of mach eighteen. Most Zoids would've instantly imploded from such impact, and the pilots wouldn't've been better off, but in this situation, the only damage either suffered were a ruffled feathers and a severely dented armor plate or two.   
  
Like the deities they were, the two continued battling without regard for gravity or common sense, and at every blow, the Maxis was met move for move. When it slashed with a claw, it was in turn slashed with the chimaera's own. When it stabbed with the head blade, it was stabbed right back by the Ancient's beak. When it kicked, it was kicked and when it tailswiped, it was slapped around by both wings...   
  
And so it went from there. The two kept clawing and beating away at each other all the way down to the ground, landing atop the dead and melted remains of an Iron Kong, only to continue brawling all the way back into the lava-filling crater where the miniature war had begun...

* * *

Thunder rattled overhead and in the distance. Miles back, Hell was being ripped apart by a struggle as mighty as any clash of armies in Zi's human history, and yet...   
  
It didn't hold very much significance to either of the two pilots. Though neither would admit it, each one knew that their mission now was more important than anything they would probably ever do again for the rest of their lives. It was almost as if they had been _born_, raised and put through seven different levels of hell, fought each other and almost killed a half a dozen times to prepare them for what they had to do now.   
  
Each one bore a matching expression to the other. Thin lips, iron-set jaws, narrowed eyes and flared nostrils. Were it possibly, their hair probably would've been standing on end. For a long while, neither even glanced at one another's comm window, until finally, the younger of the two spoke up. He sounded as tense as a fully drawn bow.   
  
"None of my bugs can get in anymore," he growled out, irritated to boot.   
  
"What do ya mean they can't get in?" Bit asked back, feeling the Liger hurtle over a particularly large lump in the grime as he did so.   
  
"They just _can't_."   
  
Bit hazarded a glance down, and saw that Vega's eyes had gotten clear again. Even so, they were almost like looking into the eyes of a hurricane, especially when compared to the rest of his face. He didn't ask anything else after that though, instead looking straight ahead to the vague outline of a city ahead of them, growing closer by the second.   
  
It was the same all around them aside from that one city and a few miscellaneous details of the terrain, scattered everywhere. The only thing truly unnerving anymore was that the shit-like grime that covered virtually every inch of Nyx was starting to finally melt. Eons worth of permafrost - the result of mixed dirt, ash and snow - was just melting out of nowhere. The temperature hadn't even raised, and Bit was starting to feel less and less like he was in a graveyard, and more like he was hauling it through an entire continent-wide battlezone that had been frozen in time somehow.   
  
The fact that random bits and pieces of Zoids were starting to poke into view with the more grime that melted away didn't help this feeling one bit.   
  
Each bit and piece was a little different from the one before it, even if only in color. Some looked like claws poking up out of the ground, and somewhere along the line, he could've _sworn_ he saw something resembling a Lightning Saix's legs sticking up. Elsewhere, there was a gigantic scorpion-like tail, and further down the line, something akin to a stoned over Shield Liger, only larger and more malignant looking. After that, there was another stoned over corpse of a Zoid, this one more similar to a Rev Raptor. This one was missing its head and either arm, but judging by the legs, tail and body alone, it had been the size of a Geno Saurer.   
  
Still, they kept going. The grime melted a bit more with every mile they tore through, until finally it was an ankle deep slush for the Liger Zero, though the Berserk Fury's hovering ability meant that it was unbothered by it all.   
  
"What the hell _is_ all of this?" Bit finally sputtered out.   
  
"Roc already gave you a few hints," Vega answered.   
  
** This entire continent was the site of one of the largest battles in this world's history. The city at it's center-   
  
**_ Was the site of the Zoidian race's last unified stand,_ Zeke finished bluntly, cutting off Specular and earning the mental equivelent of a slap on the back of the head. Bit felt as much when it happened.   
  
"The Sleepers," he deduced simply. "I thought they'd be more menacing."   
  
_ The ones we've seen so far are the tamer variety. Be glad the shit-ground hasn't melted enough to see the **real** nasties,_ Zeke replied. Specular gave the notion of a nod, and both Bit and Vega each frowned, though they did it in different ways. Bit frowned with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity, Vega simply looked resigned.   
  
Over the course of the next three minutes, and however many more miles of slogging through grime that such time entailed, Vega, Specular and Zeke filled Bit in on what he didn't know. From the genocidal self-sacrifices of the Organoids and Zoidians to what it was they died trying to stop, along with all the little details that neither Bit nor Vega knew along the way. When it was all said and done, Bit's jaw had sagged visibly own and his right eyebrow was twitching.   
  
Vega looked to be in a similar way.   
  
"That's fucking psycho," he mumbled out, just as they cleared the last hill around the blood red glow, bringing it into full view in the process.   
  
For a few moments, both Zoids came to a nerve wracking halt. Their pilots both gaped, and everything was bathed in a pulsating red light, swirling over every surface until fading away for a moment, almost as if following the pattern of a slowly beating heart... But that wasn't what made them stop.   
  
It was the city itself.   
  
In one split second's glance, each one of the two could see that the city was easily twice the size of Romeo, New Helic or even Guygalos. Its structures, seeming as old as Time, all but shimmered with the now oddly welcoming glow of crimson. They varied from small apartment buildings at the very edges of the urban sprawl to what looked like miles-high skyscrapers rising like giants out of the cityscape, concealing the source of the eerie lighting.   
  
And then there were the bodies.   
  
Hundreds of them. Maybe even thousands, and even then he knew it was only the absolute tip of the iceberg. All of them were as still as lifeless porcelain dolls, preserved so perfectly that they looked as if the elements had never even touched them. It was like Hell's Snow had _specifically_ this place, and for almost every single body in sight, there was a stoned over Organoid. Their expressions were all the same, as were their positions. Each one lay in a perfectly uniform sort of way, and all their faces were taken up by looks that bordered between tortured sobbing and the strain of a bittersweet sense of victory.   
  
Men, women, children. Organoids of every color and size, even body-types. There were cat-types, dog-types, a few birds and even what looked like a shrunken down Iron Kong. All were dead. Perfectly preserved in the places that they'd fallen.   
  
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Bit registered pangs of agony from Zeke and Specular, as well as the sound of Vega throwing up in the floor of his cockpit. If he weren't so numb right now, he would've been in the same boat as them.   
  
"We..." He began, only to run out of words as soon as the first was said. Vega gagged a while longer, and he tried again.   
  
"We need to keep moving. We _need_ to keep _moving_. Try and ignore it," he managed to say with a shaken tone of voice as he brought the Liger forward. Slowly, the Fury trudged on after it, and in a matter of seconds, the two had passed over a thin red line of slop and stepped onto the corpse-laden streets of the city, with each pilot consciously trying to ignore the crunches beneath their feet as it happened.   
  
In an instant, the red glow seemed to vanish around them, revealing itself to be some sort of bubble-type shield around the city itself.   
  
"Bit..."   
  
"I know," he replied pre-emptively, hearing what sounded like incoming footsteps, and the disgusting cracks and crunches that each one brought with them.   
  
For what seemed to drag on like an eternity, the steps inched closer. They were slow and methodical, almost as if the ones doing it were _trying_ to vandalize as many of the fallen as they could. Finally though, they stepped into view - all three of them.   
  
Each of the three was colored a menacingly dark shade of red, and each one resembled crosses between the Death Saurer and Geno Saurer, downsized to where they were around a head or two taller and proportionately longer than the Berserk Fury. Each one boasted matching red optics sit within black panels on the sides of their heads, and each one had a pair of _large_ gattling rifles on their backs, poking out over either shoulder. Another pair of odd looking triple impact cannons stuck out near either shoulder. All three were naturally hunched forward as well, just like the Fury, and each one lacked the Geno's small arms in favor of large ones, with hands suitable for grappling armor and ripping it apart.   
  
For a few seconds, the three eyed the two, and both Bit and Vega siezed up on the controls.   
  
"I can't pull off another full beam like that for a while," the boy pointed out. "Not even with Specular's help."   
  
"Then we'll just have to go _right through 'em_," the man replied in kind.   
  
At the exact same time, down to individual _nanoseconds_, both Zoids deployed their buster blades. Gattling rifles started to whirl. Optics lit up like hellfire all over again. Individual claws shifted up, then down, and teeth were beared furiously.   
  
At once, both pilots took a deep breath.   
  
At once, both pilots screamed.   
  
At once, the Berserk Fury and Liger Zero Kaiser dove into combat one more time...   
  


_End Chapter Six_  


* * *

**Author's Note:** Hmm... This chapter's ending didn't quite sit right with me for some reason. It served its purpose though.  
  
The chapter itself would've gone a while longer, mind you, but the next scene(along with at least one after it) are being delayed into the next chapter and the one after it.  
  
If'n ya need help visualizing those beasts at the end of the chapter: They're based heavily on the Bloody Demon from ZS2. Crossbreed that sucker with the unarmored Fury and voila.  
  
Hopefully the various Kale Battles of the chapter sat well with everyone. I've been wanting to lob Madison/Roc and Kale/Shadow/Maxis at each other ever since I brought that bitch outta stasis back in New Age... You can probably tell that I'm going to very much _enjoy_ writing the battle between those two. You can also hopefully tell from the initial slugfest at the start of the chapter that Vega, however inactive I've made him over the course of ROC and some of TOD, has drastically improved and gotten a whole lot more brutal in how he fights. He and Bit also make for an excellent team - they all but wrote themselves fighting in this one. All I did was supply dialogue and Kale's reactions to them.  
  
I'm also **VERY** hopeful that Vega's little outburst(not to mention his vicious streak) caught more than a few people off-guard. I've been wanting him to let loose like that for months. Hopefully, the Gateway and Insane comments/moves managed to make some peoples' spines tingle as well.  
  
For the sake of Valid Chapter Length and all that, all A/Ns from here on out will be done Zinou Style: I'll be tossing up a webpage for 'em and linking to it through my FFN profile.  
  
That's all folks. Sh33p out and enjoy. 


	7. Wasted

  
  
**Foreword:** OBLIGATORY SONGFIC CHAP, AHOY!  
  
**Most of the Chapter: **Stabbing Westward - Wasted  
**Ending:** Zoids - Evolution

* * *

** Tides of Darkness**  
_Wasted_   
  


In the middle of a city that had once been the last hope for almost an eighth of what had remained of the Ancient Zoidian race, an emerald green bolt of energy touched down from the skies above. Within nanoseconds, the energy itself warped and faded to reveal a man in his early thirties, held aloft by a set of metallic cables, each one twice as strong as his entire body. With an ease that was almost disgusting, the cables swiftly retracted, each one slithering off of the man's body in perfect unison, leaving him to drop almost three feet down to the ground.   
  
Were he in the same state he'd been in for the past decade or more, he probably would've landed with perfect balance, grace and agility. As it stood though, the man hit the sidewalk, screamed and doubled over almost instantly, clutching his right hand to his chest, though it had been wrapped in a once white towel that was now almost artistically drenched with his blood.   
  
_ Stand up.   
  
_ "_It hurts_!" He managed to tremble out, finally opening tear-ridden eyes to get a blurred view of the world around him.   
  
In an instant, he wished that he hadn't.   
  
Dead bodies lay everywhere, all of them perfectly preserved... Except for the fact that, judging by what lay broken beneath him, they were like hollow statues filled with some kind of pinkish powder now. The skin had turned hard, cold and lifeless to the touch, easily broken as a priceless vase of some kind. Ahead of him, to the right, stood a juggernaut beyond comprehension. He knew what it was almost the instant he saw it, and even through his haze of pain, he was able to identify it.   
  
"A Death Saurer..."   
  
Spoken with something that bordered on reverence. Purple eyes, so dark that they were almost black, gazed the monstrous beast over with a mixture of fear and respect alike. It was different from the ones he'd seen in the videos growing up though. Larger, slightly, and with what looked like a simple red paintjob across its entire body, not counting a few black panels here and there...   
  
At least he had _thought_ it to be paint. Depression and an already crumbling mind made for quick assumptions otherwise. Thankfully though, the bloody Death Saurer was sealed away. It had been for centuries, locked tightly within a mirror-surfaced tombstone the size of a small skyscraper, forever looking as if it had been all but thrown into place by some violently powerful surge of energy. In front of it sat something else though...   
  
It looked to be some kind of massive temple, or perhaps even just a small mesa that the city had been built around. Unlike so much else in the city, it was covered with a hardened layer of stone, which in turn was covered with now-melting grime. The entire front of it consisted of one gigantic half-arch, curving sharply up from the ground and extending to only a few dozen yards short of the frozen Saurer.   
  
And beyond that...   
  
Beyond _that_, was something he had only expected to see on his dying day. In every way, it was the culmination of his every fear, and the very essence of the motivations held by Rommel. Like a justification of every devil, monster and dictator in history, it rose from the very center of the city, dwarfed by the skyscrapers that spiraled up on all sides at some point or other around it, even though it was almost as tall as the Death Saurer itself. It was the source of the red light that domed around the city, and unlike its only counterpart, this... _Being_ was unimprisoned. Untouched by the countless cables that had connected its opposite number to a pair of giant death machines.   
  
It was broadly built, and looked as though it wore a set of colossal robes that were built into its body, all made out of solid stone or metal. Its face was as human as it was godlike. In some ways, it borderlined on being genderless, but a squared jaw, a lack of anything resembling hair at all were enough to make it look more male than female. Its arms, exposed where the others weren't, were held down at its side, and where she held the appearance of a woman looking straight ahead, or even up to the stars, _he_ held the appearance of a man glaring down at anything before him, passing judgement with nothing but a thought.   
  
He knew this God's name from the instant he saw him. It was like watching one of the final pieces of a puzzle fall into place.   
  
"_Adam_," he blurted out. The statuesque figure pulsed with red light, and Vilhelm Rommel doubled back over with a surge of mental pain, be it real or imagined.   
  
_ Stand _up_, Vilhelm.   
  
_ "Y-yes... Yes," he replied uneasily, knowing what it would mean if he did so.   
  
_ You knew it would come to this the moment you agreed to be my Acolyte_, Spectacle reminded him imposingly.   
  
"... I did," he replied again, forcing himself up to his feet with legs that felt like jelly. "It'll all be over soon," he commented, if only to reassure himself.   
  
_ Indeed.   
  
_ With that, there was a crack of what sounded like thunder going off just a few feet behind him, preceeded by a flash of green light. He was alone from there, with only the voices of the fallen and the forgotten to stop him from going on.   
  
It wasn't enough though.   
  
They begged, pleaded, threatened, screamed and cried, and it still wasn't enough. If it weren't for the blood loss he'd suffered, he would've wondered if he was hallucinating when he saw them all standing before him. Hundreds of people, all of them with different faces and names... Some he recognized, most he didn't. An Asian man was at the forefront, and Vilhelm only passingly recognized him as the spy that had been shot down trying to warn the Republicans a few months earlier. Niles Kasagawa, was it?   
  
"_Stop it_!" The man cried.   
  
Vilhelm stepped right through him and kept going. More tried, and they failed too.   
  
_ I've spent  
My life  
  
_ His grandfather, Manfred the Third, stepped up next. As fondly as Vilhelm remembered him, he felt so detached that he didn't even register the old man's enraged demands, nor did he bother noticing the hellish look in his eyes. As he'd done with Kasagawa, he walked through this one too. His parents tried - and failed - next, all but throwing themselves at his feet in tears. After that came Brogan, whose brain was willfully exposed, and who didn't even bother demanding anything. He screamed so loudly that Vilhelm wondered if he'd gone temporarily deaf after walking through him.   
  
_ Running from the emptiness  
That haunts me  
  
_ Slowly, dizzily, he trekked onward, blissfully ignorant of the hundreds of memories swarming around him as he allowed himself to be lost in his own world. A world of duty, fealty to one's word and petty mistakes that lead to a lifetime of self-hating regret. A world where nothing could be undone, and a world where he wasn't being brought to a standstill in front of what looked like a roughly opened tunnel into the virtual mountain that curved up towards the Death Saurer.   
  
This time, it was different. Slowly, his world collapsed to reveal a man just a few years older than himself. He stood before Vilhelm like a trainwreck that refused to be cleaned up, wearing what was once a long sleeved black button-up shirt and tan slacks, but now were little more than tattered rags in the right places to avoid being obscene. He looked as if he hadn't bathed in at least eight years, and his hair was black and ragged, all the way down to mid-back. His face though, wasn't all that different from Vilhelm's own, barring a broader, more masculine jaw and heavier brows.   
  
"If you don't stop this, you'll go to Hell," Henry Rommel said with a blunt, enlightened kind of voice.   
  
"I'm going to Hell anyway," Vilhelm finally replied with more clarity in those short seconds than he'd had in a year or more.   
  
Without another word, he started walking again. Henry looked ready to punch him, but Vilhelm literally walked right through him without incident, unable to feel his heart skipping a beat at this point.   
  
_ And I've felt  
My whole life   
  
_ Into darkness he went. Even so, he could see where and who they were. Like villagers trying to banish a paraiah who was too powerful to just kill, they flocked after him and in front of him. Some cried, others screamed and many were still begging, but all they did was light his way without even realizing it. Through them, he saw the walls he didn't need to run into, even though it was increasingly obvious to him that this passage was anything but pre-built. It was all smooth, but it was also warm, and the stench of what had been molten stone barely three minutes earlier was still blaringly obvious. The lack of steps was another clue.   
  
Another person lunged out of the crowd at him.   
  
_ Trying to fuck  
The loneliness away   
  
_ It was a woman this time. Screaming and sobbing, with long platinum blonde hair and a white wedding dress flaring around her. Her eyes were brown, her skin was so pale that one could almost see veins beneath it, and her face was screwed up with nothing but raw hatred in what looked to be its purest form. He knew her from the moment he'd first set eyes on her, the banshee that she'd become. Without even acknowledging her, he allowed the woman to crash through his chest and disappear, feeling some forgotten piece of his heart go right along with her.   
  
_ And I die  
Inside   
  
_ Some part of his mind vacantly registered her as his would-be fiance from some point or other in his lifetime.   
  
Was she the one who committed suicide?   
  
_ When I think of all the people  
I have damaged  
  
_ Oh well. It didn't matter anymore.   
  
Without even giving it another thought, he continued onward, feeling his hand go completely numb as he did. Perhaps it was some kind of reward? Either way, more of them came. They were without end, and more than a few of the ones trying now were only familiar as historical figures at best.   
  
A man with blonde hair that was shocked upright. A woman with orange hair and a limp. Another man, this one in a classic-styled Republic uniform, his hair done up in some kind of horrid cross between a mullet, mohawk and rat tail all at once, older than the others and still equally as powerless. He came the closest though, ranting and raving something about how the sacrifices of so many people meant nothing if he didn't turn back now.   
  
"Why don't you just quit?" He wondered aloud, stepping right through all three of them in one go, then those who were behind them, and a few more after that. This time, he was treated with a view of a man who stood around a head taller than himself. He had short green hair, almost golden eyes with only dark spots at their centers to serve as pupils, along with a slight, somewhat unnatural seeming tan. He wore a set of what looked almost like combat boots, along with dark green pants, a black shirt and a long green trench coat, splattered with blood. In addition to that, a number of perfectly kept human teeth dangled from around his neck, and a pair of skulls had been attached to either shoulder.   
  
Where so many others were desperate to stop him though, this man did nothing but clap, grinning malevolently in his own way.   
  
"Because, Vilhelm," he said, with a voice not entirely unlike Spectacle's own. "They fear the power you seek to unleash."   
  
_ And I'm tired  
I'm so tired   
  
_ For a few long moments, Vilhelm stopped and regarded him. They were only a few feet away from one another, and for whatever reason, the people who had once been mere inches from Vilhelm had all backed away, clustered into a near circle around the pair.   
  
"Power is strength. If you're strong you live, if you're weak... You die," the man explained. "Those who seek to stop you are all weak... And as you can see, most have already died."   
  
"Who cares?" Vilhelm replied bluntly, watching the man's grin expand a bit as he did so. "We're all gonna die anyway..."   
  
"That's the spirit, Acolyte. Have a bit of pride that you'll be the driving force behind wiping humanity's filth off of this world."   
  
A few seconds longer, the two kept staring at one another. Finally, Vilhelm shook his head and dropped his arms limply to his sides.   
  
"I don't care anymore," he said, and kept walking without giving the man another thought. Where so many others had tried to stop him in vain though, this one simply stepped aside with a polite, almost sickening bow, waving Vilhelm onward.   
  
_ And there's no one else  
Except myself to blame   
  
_ "Nothing matters now," he said, continuing onward.   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
Everything is gone  
My life's been wasted  
And I am all alone  
  
_ How long it took, and how far he went, he didn't know. Time meant nothing in the tunnel, and even though more people than he could count were throwing themselves at him in a bid to stop him or make him listen to what they thought was reason, he didn't care enough to even acknowledge them anymore.   
  
At last though, the journey through darkness ended.   
  
With feet that felt like lead weights, Vilhelm Rommel stepped out of the tunnel and slid down for what felt like eighty or more yards before skidding to a halt on his rear end. Without even giving a look back to the countless people now clustered at the tunnel's edge, he stood up and allowed the bloody towel to fall away, his stump fingers now fully exposed... And still bleeding badly.   
  
Before him stood only one last obstacle. The final phantom player in a game so old that Vilhelm hadn't even been a twinkle in his father's eye when it started.   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
There is no one else  
My life's been wasted  
It's time I face myself  
  
_ He wasn't quite so tall as the green haired man, but Vilhelm found him to be just as familiar nonetheless. Where the man with green hair had been like a demon, this one only reminded him of Brad Hunter. He was more muscular, and his sense of style differed drastically, but he looked like he carried himself in much the same way. He wore a set of odd looking trowsers and hide-leather straps around either bicep, along with an orange bandana and an eye patch. A real one.   
  
"_Turn back now_. That thing is only using you," Irvine Rommel stated as bluntly as a sledge hammer. For the first time since Henry and the green-haired man, Vilhelm actually found himself acknowledging one of the memories who were trying so desperately to stop him.   
  
"I know," he said, feeling a fresh gush of blood and a contemptuous burn in the back of his throat at the look he was given in reply.   
  
"The lives of millions are gonna be on _your_ head, pal. Do you _really_ want that?" Irvine asked with a sneer. He looked as if he would've murdered Vilhelm right then and there, if he could.   
  
"I. Don't. _Care_."   
  
"You're full o' shit," came the retort.   
  
"Everything is."   
  
For a few seconds, the two stared at each other, and then...   
  
"I'll see you in Hell then," Irvine said with the coldest voice that Vilhelm had ever heard in his life. A second later, the man turned away and when Rommel blinked, he was gone.   
  
_ And I've spent  
My life  
  
_ He was alone...   
  
"_**AHHHH!!!**_"   
  
Or not.   
  
_ Trapped inside  
A cycle of self destruction   
  
_ He could hear them chattering back and forth over a comm of some kind. There was a crash, something crumpled almost like tin foil and broke apart. One of the nearby buildings collapsed a second later, and by the time that Vilhelm had stepped up to the very farthest ledge he could find, nothing was left of it but smoke and rubble.   
  
All of which promptly blew apart to reveal the Liger Zero, tackling something vaguely akin to a miniature Death Saurer onto its back. The two landed hard enough to crush the street beneath them, along with the numerous bodies that had been spread out on it. Covered in a fine pinkish dust, both continued to claw at each other, buster blades little more than a neon blue wave of movement before the larger of the two kicked the Zero up and away.   
  
Like an acrobat, the feline Zoid righted itself, firing both boosters and touching down on all fours with a skid. Backwards it kept going, until it hit a lightpost and knocked it over.   
  
"What the hell _are_ these things?!" He heard Bit saying, only to watch the demon roll back up to its feet with agility that defied its bulk.   
  
Without missing a beat, the creature lunged at the Zero, and was met in kind with a Strike Laser Claw right into its head. Armor flew everywhere, previously damaged guns exploded as they tried to fire and the Kaiser went flipping through the air again, this time landing behind the other Zoid without even crumpling the pavement. Impact cannons fired and the Zoid stumbled forward, just before another of its kind went flying backwards through the smoke and the dust, a charged particle beam drilling into its chest as it went.   
  
_ Demons_, he heard again, although he instinctively knew that this wasn't Bit's voice.   
  
** Daemons, to be specific**, another Voice added. **Real Demons would eat these things.   
  
** The beam finally stopped assailing the Daemon in the air, and was followed by an uncomfortable grunt over the comm. The Berserk Fury staggered sideways out of the smoke, its armor stained all over and a sizable scratch mark visible across the side of its face. The aerial Daemon flipped itself upright and landed with enough force to leave a crater around its feet, while a third stampeded out of the smoke, vulcans ablaze with what looked like pulsed charge particle blasts.   
  
Vega's only response was almost artistic in its simplicity. With a simple turn-step motion, the Fury was brought to face the third Daemon, its right buster arm swinging in wildly and splitting open to reveal a force shield. Before the shots could even hit the Zoid itself, the shield blocked them, and was promptly used like a sledge hammer to bash the Daemon away. The ancient Zoid stumbled, its world visibly rocked by the blow, and Vega gave it no chance to recover.   
  
Both buster arms came to bear, and the Daemon shrieked as they bashed, grazed, stabbed and lashed across its back, ripping away formerly hidden boosters, along with vulcans and repeaters alike, though the Zoid's armor was just too thick to be completely destroyed.   
  
The third Daemon swung its head up and knocked the Fury aside with a headbutt, only to find itself crushed back down into the ground by the Liger Zero Kaiser. The stocky beast roared and vanished into the street, then the sewer system beneath it, while the Zero straightened itself out and managed to barely avoid falling in after it.   
  
Gold flickered out, the Liger turned back and both Bit and Vega shouted warnings to each other before jumping their Zoids out of the way. A thin charged particle beam, ripped between both of them, letting off a pressure wave that blew away the smoke and crushed debris and bodies into a fine powder in the air.   
  
Both Zoids turned to glare at their would-be assassin, the second Daemon. It had recovered from what looked like a series of gashed in its legs, and at that, Cloud and Obscura went into a bit of a tangent...   
  
"_Thought you finished it off_?!"   
  
"_Hell no_! I was just making sure you didn't get creamed."   
  
"I can handle myself, nimwit."   
  
"Suit yourself."   
  
And with that, the Liger Zero left the Fury on its own, just as the street several blocks down exploded open in plain sight to reveal the third Demon. Although covered in sewer water and still damaged from before, the only sign of harm from the shield ram was a fresh crater across its right shoulder.   
  
_ And I've spent  
My whole life  
Trying to numb  
The pain inside my soul  
  
_ "Why do you two keep bothering?" Vilhelm found himself wondering aloud, staring down at them as if he were a god in his own right. "You know it's pointless... There's nothing you can do."   
  
_ That's the problem with monkeys and half-cast bastards, Acolyte. They tend to be too stupid to see the truth standing in front of them_, came an answer from a Voice that he was all too familiar with anymore. Once, it would've sent a shiver down his spine just to hear it. Now, it brought nothing but a blink of the eyes.   
  
Spectacle materialized behind him, his long neck and head each towering over Rommel like some kind of demon. Clawed hands set themselves onto Vilhelm's shoulders and gave a light, eerily supportive squeeze. Even though they drew blood in the process, it brought a strange sense of comfort and warmth to Vilhelm's fractured psyche... What was left of it at this point, anyway.   
  
_ Be proud that you aren't the same kind of monkey as they are_, Spectacle ordered. _All that needs to be handled is your Awakening. The substitution will be flawless from there...   
  
_ The optics on the Death Saurer in front of them briefly pulsed with light, however hellish it was in its intensity.   
  
_ Just watch...   
  
_ Too late  
I cried  
  
"They're pathetic..."   
  
The Kaiser went into a tailspin in mid-air, landing almost like an insect on a wall as it crashed into the side of a building. In a fraction of a second, before glassteel could even shatter, the golden Liger had jumped back off, sideswiping the third Daemon's left arm off with a buster blade held in the position of a Blade Liger's trademarked attack. Before the arm even hit hit the ground, the Daemon grabbed it by the stump and used it almost like a club. The Liger whipped back around and took it right across the lower jaw with enough force to corkscrew onto its back without even flying into the air.   
  
"**_FUCK!_**" Vilhelm heard Bit scream.   
  
The arm-turned-club swung back in and rebounded away as the Kaiser's shield lit up. Both buster blades retracted completely from there, and as a result, forced the Liger into a backflip. Boosters kicked in at midway, and the Zoid ended up going all the way over the Daemon's head before landing on its back. Golden glowing teeth sank feet deep into red armor a second later, and similarly glowing claws began to rip away as well. Gunfire followed, from vulcans and impact cannons alike, and by the time it was all over, the Daemon's head fell off of its mutilated neck and landed on the ground with a disgusting thump. It was crushed into the sewer by the falling body a second later.   
  
_ Hope...   
  
_ "One down-andholyshitfuckingbajesus_**HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THAT?!**_" Bit screeched out, apparently having finally noticed the Zoids' Adam towering in the distance, along with the bloody Death Saurer entombed before it.   
  
"You _just_ noticed?" Vega asked, in the midst of trying to hold off one Daemon while assaulting the other.   
  
"... Well... Yeah."   
  
_ It's an easy thing to destroy.   
  
When I realized  
I fought this war with no one   
  
INCOMING!_ Zeke shrieked out, just before the Liger jolted to the side. The street beneath it all but exploded to reveal what looked like some kind of four-legged two-horned dragon with armor that was sleek in some places, but harshly angled in others. It had wings as big as the Zero itself, and a powerfully built neck lined with guns. Buzzsaws on either wing, and on a backpack array as well, lit up with reddish energy, and a set of lethal silver claws touched down on the pavement nearby without the slightest care for the bodies destroyed in the process.   
  
"What the _fuck_?" Vilhelm heard Bit shout, only to watch the Liger tear away from a sudden onslaught of gunfire, backlit to a roar so intense that his own ears threatened to start bleeding.   
  
** Gylvader**, Specular calmly informed as the Fury ducked down under one Daemon and threw itself back up. The hefty Zoid went flying over it and landed with a crash on its back, where the Fury's tail promptly began clubbing it down as Vega occupied himself with the thing's partner. Almost as if in a swordfight, he guided the creature from his flank to where it stood directly in front of him, parrying every strike it could throw in the meantime.   
  
The Liger Zero roared and lunged into battle again, jumping over the Vader's tail, landing and executing a series of pin-point slashes with its buster blades, causing sparks to fly from the larger Zoid's back left leg before the tail came back around for a second go at it. This time, it hit, and the Kaiser was lucky to avoid being gored on the spikes at its tip. Instead, it flew sideways for a bit, then skidded to a halt as the Vader turned around, only to get a face full of vulcan fire. It wasn't enough to stop the huge Zoid from unleashing another assault, but it at least left an opening in what seemed like otherwise impervious defenses...   
  
_ I'm tired  
I'm so fucking tired   
  
_ "It doesn't make sense..."   
  
_ Monkeys like them never do.   
  
_ Up the Kaiser went, its claws coming down towards the open cockpit of the Vader, narrowly dodging a hail of laser and plasma beams as it did so. The Vader was a step ahead though, tilting its head up and snapping powerful jaws shut around the Liger's shoulder, then nonchalantly wringing it about like a rag doll before flinging it into the side of a building.   
  
Vilhelm heard Bit screaming as it hit and kept going. Two city blocks later, the Liger Zero Kaiser landed with an awkward roll and bashed into another building on its side, finally stopping as the huge structure rumbled and churned from the impact. A Liger-sized hole remained in each building it had gone through, but these remained standing in spite of the damage as well.   
  
"You okay?!" He heard Vega ask, just before the second Daemon shrieked and died, its core vaporizing between a combination of being stabbed with an egg beater thrust and shot with a charged particle beam. The Zoid toppled over sideways and the Fury let out a screech of its own as the remaining Daemon bashed it aside with a headbutt, then grabbed it with both hands and drove it into the concrete with enough force to punch both of them down into the sewers below.   
  
"I wouldn't be worried about me," Bit mumbled out sardonically.   
  
With that, the Liger heaved itself back up on unsteady legs, and Vilhelm, even through at least three different buildings, could see it shaking from side to side as if to steady itself. Without bothering to launch any attacks as the Gylvader began plowing towards it, the Liger brought both blades up onto its back, then activated its shield before charging forward.   
  
Halfway, the Liger leapt and both Zoid's met. When the clash ended, the Vader's neck had snapped back so forcefully that there were sparks spewing out of it, and the Liger was hurtling through the air and into the side of one of the same buildings it had just gone through a few seconds earlier.   
  
_ Gotta find a way  
To keep myself alive   
  
_ "_One more time_!" Bit declared with something that sounded like he was trying to be dramatic. A pointless, and in this case futile, attempt as far as Vilhelm was concerned. With that though, the Liger let out something akin to a war cry as the Zoid jerked itself up from the ground less than a second after impact.   
  
The Gylvader came about at almost the same time, and a blistering hail of gunfire was the retort. The Liger was barely able to dodge, its shield absorbing even more abuse in the process as it dove away from the holes in the buildings between it and the Vader. As a result, the shots went screaming through the streets, hit and obliterated a set of lightposts, along with the entire first floor of a shorter structure that promptly collapsed as a result. Vilhelm was able to see with perfect clarity as the Vader turned to try and catch the Zero again, even though its target was obviously hidden from sight.   
  
_ I can tell that you're wondering... Wondering why they don't just die?_ Spectacle asked, and Vilhelm gave a nod as the Liger's shield dropped and the Vader caught it in plain sight again. A pitched gunfight promptly erupted between the two.   
  
"Yes," Vilhelm answered as the Kaiser blatantly charged head-on into the assault from the larger Zoid, armor cratering, shattering or slicing away in the process.   
  
_ I've been wondering that same question for over two hundred years now_, the Organoid replied curiously. Both were able to hear Bit's screaming as the Zero's cockpit glass started to crack, and Zeke's cry of pain as the Zoid's left elbow stabilizer took a hit. A second later, the Liger made it to point blank, its own shots having cleared the way by blowing a hole in the Vader's throat.   
  
_ I'm still searching for an answer.   
  
_ Buster blades snapped out at the last second, stabbing into the Vader's open throat and slithering into its chest from the entry wound. The huge Zoid bellowed and threw its head down, crashing like a hammer across the Zero's back and even causing its rear legs to shake from the impact. With that though, Bit let out another scream and the Liger echoed it with a roar...   
  
_ Obviously, it can't be so noble as the quest for true power and immortality with it. It also can't be as noble as the desire to save their race at all costs... The two of them want to live, after all.   
  
_ The blades hit something important. The Vader bellowed again and tried flapping its wings, but the Liger plunged its swords in even deeper, apparently rupturing the core as they did so. A second later, the Gylvader threw its head back and let out a death cry.   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
Everything is gone  
My life's been wasted  
And I am all alone  
  
_ "The human condition," Vilhelm commented as the soul of the dead beast literally poured from its corpse, spilling out through every crack between armored plates, through the mouth and, especially, the hole in its throat. Each strand seemed to spiral independently into the air, fading into a rainbow of colors only to converge high above it all...   
  
"They want their species to live, but they refuse to die for it."   
  
The soul coalesced into a sphere, held for a few moments and was promptly sucked from its position as if by some unseen force. Like a bolting Organoid, it streaked through the air, formed into a sphere once again and was then plunged into the chest of the comatose Death Saurer, its eyes pulsing briefly in the process.   
  
_ A condition that you, thankfully, lack.   
  
_ The Liger struggled away from the stoning corpse that had been the Gylvader, drawing its buster blades out and onto the Zoid's back in the process. The statue held still for a few seconds longer, only to crumble under the stress of its own weight in the end. With that, the Zero turned slowly towards the main street and took off into a slow jog, its wounds gradually healing from Zeke's influence as it did so.   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
There is no one else  
  
_ Uninterested, Vilhelm turned his attentions back to Vega, who was still battling back and forth with the third Daemon. Even without its fellows, the Zoid was proving to be the equal of the Berserk Fury, and its Organoid and young pilot as well. Like the beast it was named for, the Daemon snapped its jaws shut on the Fury's throat, heedless to the beating it recieved from both the other Zoid's small arms and buster claws alike, then went about wrestling it back and forth under the streets.   
  
It was an uneven exchange at best, and one that Vega had little hope of really winning. The Fury was powerful, but even with Specular's help, it simply wasn't strong or heavy enough to fight back the weight of the Daemon. Within seconds, the Berserk Fury toppled over sideways and backwards, thrashing as it was half-submerged in centuries-old sewer water.   
  
For a few seconds, the Fury was helplessly beaten down underwater, before Vega finally shouted something incoherent and snapped open both buster claws. The street above was promptly ripped apart, and debris left to rain down on both Zoids. A pair of reddish-pink flashes followed, and after those, only a whirlwind of light and a few loud crashes could be seen and heard from within...   
  
_ Up there! _Vilhelm heard, drawing his attentions back from Vega and over to the Liger Zero.   
  
"I see 'em," Bit replied, and for a moment, Vilhelm was able to imagine him clenching his fists around the controls.   
  
A stream of vulcan fire rained in, and yet... Every bullet deflected as he felt a burst of wind blow by, precursing an odd - and short lived - surge of red light.   
  
"Son of a _bitch_," he heard, and smiled softly.   
  
_ Adam's stepped in...   
  
_ "Don't you idiots get it?" He asked, only to watch the Liger arrogantly roar and make a hard run for the Death Saurer across from him. The only unknowing response that Bit ever gave was an order for Zeke to pour every ounce of his power into the boosters, just before the Kaiser leapt up and began to literally scale the frozen Demon. "It's too late for everyone now. The dreams are all dead..."   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
It's time I face myself  
  
_ Spectacle's morbidly comforting presence left with a sound like a beam cannon going off as Vilhelm turned away, looking down into his left hand and simply starting to chuckle.   
  
_ When I reach the end   
  
_ "All hope is lost..."   
  
The Liger kept going, literally running straight up onto the top of the Death Saurer's tombstone.   
  
_ Will anything I've done   
  
_ "Everything is over..."   
  
Bit let out something like a growl as the Zero swung about in two near-perfect right angle turns, coming to face the temple - and Vilhelm as well by default.   
  
_ Mean anything?   
  
_ "Everybody..."   
  
The Liger charged towards the edge of the tombstone, leaping with every booster and both claws burning like small suns. Its optics glowed as it closed in, and Vilhelm looked up in what felt like slow motion with warped smile on his face, which was partially concealed by his left hand an instant later. Nails dug into flesh and slowly peeled away as he felt Spectacle's energy surge into his body, bloody spurting out of his stump fingers and the new cuts alike. The lightheadedness left instantly...   
  
"_Everybody_..."   
  
The Liger came ever closer, and as it got to the point that Vilhelm could make out the space between each of its toes, it _happened_...   
  
_ Will anything I've done mean anything?   
  
_ His eyes turned green.   
  
_ Neon_ green.   
  
"**_EVERYBODY DIES!!!_**"   
  
He laughed, and over the course of the next tenth of a second, his laugh became a howling cackle. Arms flew out to the sides like some kind of unholy martyr, yet before the Liger's claw could ever hit, a bolt of green passed under it. Zeke screamed and bolted out of the Zero through its mouth, racing the green in with such desperation that he almost caught it...   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
Everything is gone   
  
_ But it was too little, too late.   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
And I am all alone   
  
_ The green lightning hit first, and before Vilhelm's shattered mind could even comprehend what was happening, Spectacle had ripped through him. His internal organs and bones liquified, spilling with blood all over the stone behind him with such speed that it splattered for at least thirty feet by the time that the green bolt had finished passing through.   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
There is simply no one else   
  
_ Wheezing out a morbid laugh the entire way down, he was able to watch the golden lightning take a sharp turn and crash into the stone to his right, forming up to reveal an Organoid rolling with the crash.   
  
Before he ever even hit the ground though, Vilhelm Rommel met the full force behind the Liger Zero's Strike Laser Claw, and as his body was consumed by it, something in the back of his fractured psyche told him that he could rest now...   
  
_ My life's been wasted  
It's time to face myself   
  
_ Bit grunted as the Liger hit the ground running, its claw completely annihilating Rommel's body in the process. With a blank look on his face, he listened to the howling cackle echoing through both his mind and the minds of everybody else within the immediate vicinity. The green bolt spiraled away and plowed into the eons old stone a second later...   
  
"He _killed_ his own man?"   
  
_ IT WAS A SACRIFICE, BIT!_ Zeke finally screamed out. _HE FUCKING SUBSTITUTED ROMMEL! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE **NOW**!_ The Organoid continued while scrambling up to its feet and bolting towards the Liger.   
  
"_What the hell're you babbling about_?" He demanded, utterly lost in confusion.   
  
And that was when the layer of stone in front of him blew apart into a million different pieces, revealing a pair of giant, nightmarishly red eyes...   
  
_

End Chapter Seven

* * *

_ **Author's Note:** Wait for it...  
  
Wait for it...  
  
**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!** XD!  
  
Around two years of waiting, planning, cackling maniacally and mutilating my hapless brain with visuals have lead to this chapter and the one following it, people. _This_ is where the shit hits the fan. May God have mercy on the souls of Zi's people, because I sure as hell won't.  
  
And on a complete sidenote: This chapter finally explains what I've been leading you guys on about for a while now. Vilhelm and Henry are the direct descendents of Irvine and Moonbay. Since nobody was guessing it right, I decided to finally say to hell with it and let you all in on that _little_ secret. But wait, doesn't this mean that they're Naomi's _cousins_?  
  
**DUH**. Think, people. What does Naomi have about her appearance that stands out other than her hair? _Pale skin_ and _purple eyes_ >.> Van basically spelled it out for you, and if you didn't figure out the WW2 Connection: Irvine's name(and character in general) reminded me of an odd pun on the historical figure of Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox of Africa. When we first meet Irvine, he's a lone wolf in a desert who favors hit-and-fade tactics with the occasional total assault, just like the real life Rommel. His name, when spoken with an especially _thick_ German accent also _sounds_ like a variation of Erwin. In real life, Rommel also had a son named Manfred, or so I've been informed, so that's where _that_ comes from.  
  
Naomi's family happens to be an offshoot of the Rommels, branching off around her grandmother or great-grandmother. Her other surviving cousins are related in much the same way. And yes, for anyone keeping tabs on all the tangled shit in this web I've spun, Moonbay Cola is a sister-company to the Rommel Corporation, the latter of which was probably originally founded by one of Irvine and Moonbay's grandchildren.  
  
As for how Irvine got the name Rommel, why Spectacle specifically chose his and Moonbay's descendents and what role that green-haired man had to play in it all, etc... Well, that'll hopefully be explained sooner or later, but I'm not gonna give it away just yet.  
  
I'll be brutally honest when I say that the Rommel Connection didn't exactly occur to me until about midway through ROC, but damn does it ever fit >.>;  
  
As for the neon green eyes thing: It should be easy to figure out. Henry was the same as Bill. Psuedo-Rommel basically said he went after Bill because they were 'the same kind,' and well... Evolution _happens_, kids. Think about that o.o  
  
Also: If you didn't see Adam coming from a mile away, slap yourself o.o That one's been brewin' since New Age. And the Daemons and Gylvader are all representative of the Sleepers. The four of them slapped around two of the very best pilots, Zoids and Organoids on the face of the planet...  
  
Now imagine what a whole army of Sleepers will do to dear ol' _Champton_ >D  
  
As with the chapter before, reviews are dealt with nowadays on a webpage you can find a link to in my profile.  
  
That all said: Let the _real_ fun begin...  
  
Sh33p out. 


	8. Rise of the Asmodeus

  
  
**Foreword:** Let the AHBL... BEGIN! >.>  
  
**Scene One:** Linkin Park - Opening  
**Scene Two:**  
Zoids - Zoid Eve's Theme  
Zoids - Raven's Theme  
**Scene Three:**  
G Gundam - Intense Battle  
Rammstein - Engel  
**Scene Four:** Zoids - Wailing Steel

* * *

**Tides of Darkness  
** Rise of the Asmodeus

* * *

It was an odd experience, sitting in the cockpit again. For the first time in months, not counting a certain incident involving a mutant Gojulas, she was sitting amidst the consoles, panels, blinking lights and video monitors. The setup wasn't really all that different from a standard Gun Sniper. A few screens were different, the seat was less comfortable, there was a small wireframe readout of the Zoid's status positioned just beneath the main screen and a 3D layout of everything within five miles.   
  
Without a word, she finished buckling the safety harness and brought her hands up to the controls. The cockpit lights came on and the main view screen followed suit. She had already rewritten the command system twice now, the second time because one of the techies had accidentally erased the first one while loading the new weapons and programming them into it. It had been the first time she'd ever really seen the layout of every one of the Zoid's weapons, not counting the ones she had authorized to be put on it.   
  
It was pretty basic, really. Talons that were capable of mimicking the energy fields seen on a Rev Raptor's scythes, a tail that wasn't all that different from a Gun Sniper's, bar a series of spikes on all sides, the gun on its nose, and a hidden mortar launcher on the back. Aside from that, there was a modified double impact cannon on the thing's chest and a pair of high speed blasters mounted on the arms. It wasn't a whole lot compared to most Zoids, but combined with the agility and speed that she _knew_ the Gun Raptor possessed, it would be enough.   
  
It didn't take long after she'd reactivated everything for the precursor to begin. Charged particle beams as wide as houses blew up out of the ground less than two dozen yards in front of here. Tons of dirt beyond that simply bulged and broke upward, and further away still, the grass caught fire and the ground boiled into molten lava. Before, this area had been a garden of sorts, something beautiful on the edge of Gyran's ugly exterior. Harry had called it his garden a hundred times, and most of the flowers he'd brought her had probably come from here.   
  
Now, that beauty was burning right in front of her.   
  
As little as a month ago, maybe even less than that, she probably would've panicked to the point of tremors at what was happening all around her.   
  
As the sun finished setting over Champton though, Leena Tauros found herself in an odd state of peace. She was calm. Her anxiety just didn't exist anymore, and though she was still worried about the other lines, and over whether or not her friends and loved ones would be amongst the casualties, she found that she couldn't quite bring herself to feel troubled over her own safety.   
  
Maybe it was a mark of maturity, or even some form of resignation. Perhaps though, it could also have been some kind of new form of confidence. No longer the egomaniacal breed of gun slinging bravado that she'd had before. In a way, some part of her almost wondered if this was the kind of calm self-assurance that Naomi felt on the occasions she'd battled the Blitz Team.   
  
Either way, as the first Sleepers began to climb up out of their holes like harbingers of the apocalypse, it didn't matter.   
  
"Hello, boys," she greeted with a soft tone, the kind that sounded sadistic in spite of her zen-like calmness. "I'm about to send you all back to Hell."   
  
Without even giving any of the Sleepers the chance to look threatening after that, the Gun Raptor bent down into a crouched posture and rushed forward, shrieking a war cry in the process.

* * *

A series of screams ripped through his ears as metal gave way to a half-dozen shield slaps delivered over the course of a single moment, and although each scream lasted only a fraction of a second, the howling laughter that came with them remained for what felt like an eternity. In near-slow motion, he watched the battered form of the third Daemon give way, its shattered right leg crumbling under its own weight and bringing it to a kneel as both arms fell away. Half of its face was missing, and yet the beast still had the resolve to try and fight onward.   
  
A swift, violent thrust from a spinning buster arm put an end to that. There was a splash of centuries old sewer water and the third and final Daemon ceased living. In a matter of seconds, it had stoned over, though its soul was left to spiral up towards the sky, only to be pulled in by something demonic in its own right.   
  
Without even thinking, Vega Obscura wheeled the Berserk Fury around, ignoring the damage it had sustained so far and folding both buster arms back. After that, the boosters in its legs gave a whip-like crack and forced it ahead, jumping back up onto the streets and into full view of what was happening.   
  
Zeke was screaming something, and Bit-   
  
"_Oh_, sweet mother of God..."   
  
Bit seemed almost _reverent_ in his horror. Specular gave a jolt of something identifiable only as fear, and while the Liger Zero, only barely visible atop the temple, began to roar and howl in some kind of power struggle, Vega shifted a sidelong glance at the bloody Death Saurer, still entombed nearby.   
  
"... Crap," he mumbled out as the huge beast began to struggle.   
  
Fingers almost as large as his Zoid flexed incessantly, and before long, the hands they belonged to had curled into the nearest equivelent to a fist that such a monster was capable of. For a few seconds, it seemed to hold still, and then the entire tombstone it had been stuck in shattered like glass. Debris of every size and shape went flying through the air, meeting a similar rain from atop the old temple, and as a hellish cry rumbled through the air, Vega's attention shifted back to the temple itself.   
  
"_Bit_!" He shouted, unable to even register the amount of screaming that Specular was doing right now. It was all he could do to keep from having a nervous breakdown over it. "We have to get out of here!"   
  
"**_I CAN STILL KILL IT!_**" Came the almost rabid response, deafening in its intensity.   
  
A second later, Vega realized that what Bit was screaming about wasn't the Death Saurer that, even now, was literally shaking debris off like it was the most natural, casual thing in the world. It was something on top of the temple, just out of sight. Even then though, Vega could still clearly see the violently halting movements of the Liger Zero Kaiser, its stabilizers glowing as brightly as its claws, and all guns blazing as it jolted about.   
  
_ NO YOU CAN'T! WE'VE GOT TO LEAVE NOW!   
  
_ "**_I HAVEN'T COME ALL THIS WAY JUST TO FUCKING WIMP OUT!_**"   
  
** SHUT UP AND RUN, YOU IDIOT!   
  
** "What in the hell are you people _screeching like banshees about_?" Vega finally snapped, even though Bit and Zeke didn't even register his existence at this point.   
  
Unfortunately, the Death Saurer did. As it looked down with a sideways glare that could burn someone's soul out of their body, Vega glanced up to meet it and almost instantly felt his teeth rattling. He didn't even bother addressing the thing though, and for a few seconds, neither did it. It simply stood its ground, fingers and toes alike flexing as its tail whipped around, destroying the floor of a building in the process.   
  
And then, as if he didn't even _matter_ to it, the bloody Demon turned away, bringing its attentions to bear on the temple, and by default, Bit, Zeke and the Liger as well.   
  
Like a god in its own right, the Death Saurer roared its war cry, and then threw its head back as energy flooded into its gaping mouth. Power formed into what looked like a miniature sun, made of pure molten silver or glass. For a few seconds, it stayed that way, and although Specular's memories and so many bits and pieces of history had said that it could fire a charged particle beam after only a second or two of charging up, this one just kept going. Energy continued to build within its jaws like blazing hellfire, and at last, Vega turned his attentions to Bit.   
  
"**_GET OUTTA THE WAY, MORON!_**" He screamed out.   
  
"**_FUCK OFF, YOU LITTLE PRICK!_**" Bit promptly replied before Vega'd even finished speaking. Finally, the Liger seemed to jolt one last time as Zeke let out a cry of pain, yet before he even bothered thinking it, Vega knew that he had to act.   
  
One buster arm snapped forward and closed, and a light charged particle beam shot out from its center. A hundredth of a second later, Vega's ears were privy to Bit's enraged screaming as the Liger took the full force of the beam right in its side. Where so many Zoids would've been killed almost instantly though, the Kaiser's armor held up so well that the blunt force of the beam was able to fling it off of its feet and hurl it into the air with only minimal damage, but Vega didn't quit there. Another beam followed, then a third, and finally, the Liger could be seen tumbling all the way to the ground, whether Bit wanted it to or not. It passed beneath the overhang of the stoned over temple and crashed somewhere on the other side, but Vega's attention promptly snapped back to the Death Saurer before he could see it.   
  
"_Crap_," he repeated, not even bothering to watch as the ancient beast of destruction threw its head forward with a vicious howl. The Fury's buster claws stabbed into the pavement around him, and both sets of footlocks followed suit almost instantly as the charged particle gun fired.   
  
A shockwave of tortured atmosphere blew by with enough force that any glass left in the city - not counting the cockpits of the Liger and Fury - shattered almost on contact with it. It was so loud that Vega's ears throbbed instantly, and so bright that he had little choice but to look away or face temporary blindness from intensity. The pavement cracked, and any nearby bodies were reduced to a horrific pinkish dust, but it still had to end sometime.   
  
All of thirty seconds later, it did just that. Vega practically shook the cobwebs out of his skull and looked straight ahead in time to see the Liger stepping around from behind the temple, its head hung low like some kind of monster waiting for a challenge.   
  
"I could have stopped it," Bit's voice rang out, and Vega, for the first time, came to the realization that the blonde pilot was actually crying. "I could have _stopped all of this_," he grit out, sounding about as murderous as Kale had earlier.   
  
"Stopped _what_?" Vega retorted sharply. "It's only a freaking _Death Saurer_. All we need to do is leave the damn thing here and find someone with a gravity ca-"   
  
** He's not talking about that,** Specular interrupted numbly, giving the notion of pointing up and to the left. Almost instantly, Vega and the Fury each tilted their heads in that direction, and were greeted by a sight that the younger pilot hadn't expected in a million years. In its own way, it was infinitely more terrifying than any bout with Kale had ever been - and this thing wasn't even moving.   
  
"... _Oh_."   
  
"_I could've killed it_," Bit growled, apparently oblivious to the fact that the aforementioned Death Saurer had just tried - and miserably _failed_ - to do just that.   
  
"**_ARE YOU BLIND?!_**" Vega promptly screamed out so loudly that he almost felt his voice cracking.   
  
"I've been training to kill it ever since I got here... **_WHAT USE AM I IF I CAN'T STOP THAT GOD DAMNED THING?!_**" Bit retorted sharply, sounding a bit further over the edge with every single word.   
  
"This isn't the _time_ to be _losing it_," Vega replied, trying to keep calm in spite of the fact that all Hell was literally about to break loose on their heads.   
  
"**_YES IT IS! I'LL KILL YOU!_**" Bit screamed out, just as the Kaiser's blades snapped up into view, extended by all four joints.   
  
Vega grimaced, ripping the buster claws back out of the pavement as the Fury's footlocks went up. Without even bothering to keep an eye on the Death Saurer, he watched as the Liger Zero came blazing in, vulcan rounds quickly managing to cover the Fury's chest in dents.   
  
Distance closed, both blades swung forward and Vega-   
  
"Now."   
  
Simply jumped sideways, avoiding both and snapping a kick out. The blow connected with near-Royal Cup precision, but it wasnt just the impact that it delivered. A pulse of blue light ripped through the larger Zoid's leg, passing through the Kaiser's armor at the point where the foot made contact with it and promptly flooding into the Liger's body as a result. By the time that Vega touched down out of the jump, the would-be slugfest had already ended, and the Kaiser came skidding to a mad halt on all fours in the process.   
  
** This... Is _so_ awkward.   
  
**_ ... I ain't complainin'.   
  
_** You wouldn't.   
  
** "... Amazing how you two can be so utterly calm right now," Vega twitched out, wondering how they were managing it when, no less than a minute ago, they'd been ranting and raving about the apocalypse. Before either could even reply though, he continued, "_Forget it_-"   
  
There was a monstrous crash in the background. Vega felt his spine tingle as explosions started going off.   
  
"Let's just get the hell _out of here_!" He finished, tightening his hold on the controls as the world practically began to fall apart in every direction.   
  
Both the Fury and the Liger, the latter of which was no longer even in Bit's control, wheeled about to face the nearest exit from the city, then launched off without so much as a backwards glance, even though the older pilot was still screaming his lungs out. The occasional sounds of fists hitting a console with enough force to implode it weren't exactly comforting as far as Vega was concerned, but at least it meant that Bit wasn't able to try and go back now, or attack him.   
  
Behind them though, everything was going to Hell. As the two Zoids tore through the remaining streets on their way back out, every building in sight began to collapse without the slightest inkling of a warning beforehand...   
  
And it was all because of the ungodly beast that the Death Saurer was rampaging against. Although Vega hadn't been watching it at the time, the bloody monster had somehow managed to hurl itself up into the air, twice the height of its own body no less, and landed perfectly atop what he'd once thought to be a temple or mountain of some kind. He knew different now, and he also knew that there were no longer any possibility of victory.   
  
_ Survival._ That was all that truly mattered right now.   
  
But what to survive though?   
  
The ground in almost every direction was ripping itself apart. Centuries worth of grime and permafrost were shattering every fifty or sixty yards, be it from conventional gunfire or even a charged particle beam. Every kilometer or so, it looked as if a mountain was ripping itself up out of the ground, and in every direction that he could think to look, an energized crystal of some kind was exploding. Gravity blasts, sub-atomic explosions, even psychic warps were tearing into existence everywhere, and above it all, the clouds overhead were blowing apart. Most spread towards the seas on all sides, but more than a few simply ceased to exist, as if they'd been thrown out into space somehow.   
  
And at its center... At the very _core_ of it all, near where Adam had brooded for so very long, _it_ was awakening.   
  
Bit let out another scream and the comm shut off as Vega felt the Micro-Sworders drawing his attention away from the flight to survival, and back over to the edge of the city, closer to its westernmost side though. It was as if he'd been forcefully disembodied against his will, and even though he was in full control of his every action, he had little choice but to zoom in on the ridge that Bit had once presumed to be nothing but an ancient transit tunnel of some kind.   
  
The problem with that idea was that tunnels don't _move_, and this one _was_. It was like watching an unending nightmare as a single massive row of saw blade-like spines rose up through the surface of the ancient stone and grime, which itself was breaking away to reveal something so immense that Vega's mind had to struggle just to wrap itself around it all. Dirty grey gave way to polished black metallic scales, each and every one of which promptly pulsed green and stayed that way as a set of four _massive_ limbs ripped their way out of the ground. Even though they were, in all likelihood, the smallest parts of it, each one was easily twice the size of the Death Saurer that was still raging at it, and each one was tipped with three massive fingers and toes.   
  
Finally, like a true god of destruction, it rose. Mile after mile of the ground gave way around it, and as it did so, the Rare Hertz that surrounded the entire continent imploded into its body like a rush of air into a vaccum. It was like watching a furious rainbow of every color imaginable, slipping through the skies and waving down into the uprisen spines on the monster's back.   
  
After that, its head came into view, violently shaking about as the bloody Death Saurer fought to keep its footing on the god's snout. In comparison, it was like watching a rat trying to tame a crocodile.   
  
At least, the monster lifted itself from the ground completely, leaving a torrent of grime, slush and lava to flood where it had once been. As if it were the Devil himself, the monster rose. Higher and higher it went, until its entire body formed into a near maze of curves and scale-like armoring, leading from a tail that trailed what almost looked like hundreds of feet of Organoid cabling, up to its legs, then all the way to its arms, and finally to the beast's head.   
  
This was where Vega found himself unable to go on anymore. With a jolt and a scream, he lurched forward and felt his eyes unfogging. Hands still on the controls, he felt Specular giving the panicked notion of yanking at his earlobe, and felt oddly thankfuly for it. He had seen enough.   
  
"_Hello_? _Vega_? _Anybody_?!" A voice rang through his ears over the broadband. With the Rare Hertz no longer in effect, that meant that outside signals could finally reach him, and that meant-   
  
_ "Lars."   
  
_ "Damnit, Vega... _Answer m_-"   
  
"Cool it!" Vega cut him off, feeling a brief and easily forgotten surge of relief at the nerd's voice.   
  
"_Finally_," Lars replied in kind. "What the hell's going on out there?!"   
  
"_Don't ask_," Vega answered bluntly. "Just get your scrawny ass down here and _pick us up_!" He ordered, only to realize what that meant and add to it almost the moment he'd finished speaking. "Either that or run. Turn around and _run_..."   
  
"Make up your mind already," Lars grumbled out. "D'you want a pick-up or not?"   
  
"**_YES!_**" Vega impulsively screamed out, feeling his fear get the better of him as he did so. "Just... Just _be careful_, alright? This whole continent is-"   
  
"Going to Hell? _I noticed_," Lars cut him off. "And I don't give a damn. Keep the signal going, I'm gonna try and home in on it," the techy ordered, just before Vega heard him running from the comm station and firing up the Foe Hammer's engines.   
  
"Better hurry up then," the youth muttered out afterward, knowing he went unheard.

* * *

There was a scream as the Geno Maxis closed in from above, thrusters burning like a pair of miniature suns. The grounded chimaera leapt sideways and out of the way, allowing the Geno's head blade to hit a dead Rev Raptor, skewer it and promptly rip it in half as Kale recovered. Where most Zoids, and many people, would've tried to have a stand-off right then and there, the black monster simply leapt forward into a run, narrowly dodging a downward swipe from one of the other beast's wings, which instead hit grime and succeeded in splattering it everywhere.   
  
There was a grating sound of metal against metal, Shadow grunted and Kale briefly turned his attention to the Geno's right hip. It had been scraped up pretty badly by the chimaera's tail, but within a few seconds, the wound would be gone.   
  
That was assuming, of course, that they'd get those few seconds. Without even bothering to wait and gauge the Ancient's next move, Kale reacted on pure instinct. Swinging the Maxis around, both shoulder cannons were brought to bear, and as the chimaera started to take flight, its hind legs were scorched and dented from hip to toe with little more than the notion of a trigger finger pulling back. Where most of the Zoids that Kale had done battle with over the past month would've likely gone down for the count right then and there, this one simply shrugged it off and got airborn anyway, arcing up with the kind of agility that'd make a Storm Sworder pilot puke, then coming almost straight back down.   
  
Kale only barely had time to let out an irritated grunt of his own before the entire world exploded around him. The ground cratered around the Geno's feet, grime went flying everywhere and a few limbs were exposed nearby, encased in solid permafrost and only foggily visible.   
  
When it was all said and done, the Maxis threw itself right back up, heaving the chimaera back and onto its hind legs. A split second was all it took for Kale to press home the advantage, knifing the head-blade into the thing's stomach, then tearing it back out and jumping into a tail-swipe. The combination of blows caused a shower of sparks and what looked like water to come spewing out of the initial wound, while the second attack did little other than to throw the First Born into an awkward twist onto its side.   
  
The Maxis touched down and came in for the kill once more, teeth snapping out at the base of the chimaera's tail, only to have that same limb jam itself into the Zoid's mouth and somehow fire out each and every spine it had available.   
  
This time, it was the Maxis that stumbled away, roaring irately with a mouth full of spurs that looked like it'd tried biting a giant metal porcupine. It only took a few seconds for this damage to become undone though, with the needles popping back out harmlessly to the ground. Unfortunately, by the time that Shadow managed this feat, the Ancient had already gotten back up, regenerated its missing needles and somehow closed the hole in its stomach.   
  
Furious red, blue and black optics glared into genocidal ones, and with the shriek of an eagle and the war cry of a Liger at the same time, the chimaera lunged in.   
  
Kale was ready this time. With a grin on his face and that old gleam in his eyes, he simply jumped the Maxis straight up, legs curling in on itself and tail going rigid for balance-   
  
Only for the slaughterbeast to let out a shriek of its own when both of the First Born's wings snapped up and pancaked it between them with a sound not unlike violently rattling tin foil. Shadow let out an annoyed growl and Kale echoed it with a string of profanity under his breath, while the chimaera simply carried them along to its landing, then used both wings like a catapult to fling them away.   
  
The Maxis flipped a half-dozen times, firing its boosters and righting itself in mid-air as the newly incurred damage repaired itself once again. Even as armored plates literally popped back out to their normal shape though, the Zoid's pilot grit his teeth.   
  
"Going _down_."   
  
Shadow gave the notion of a sardonic groan, and every booster on the Geno's body cut out. An instant later, gravity kicked in and yanked it back down to the grimey surface below, while a focused charged particle beam screamed through the air it had previously occupied. The beam cut its way as far as the skies themselves before Kale lost track of it in favor of attacking.   
  
With the speed of a Lightning Saix, the Geno Maxis closed in on foot, its claws glowing and the guns in its shoulders blazing to keep the Ancient from simply lowering its head. A maniac's laugh-and-scream later, the black Zoid dove right back into the impact crater from before, slamming into the First Born's neck with both claws and driving it back a few steps in the process - not to mention slicing straight through the layers of metallic feathers and into the structure beneath. Furiously, the two struggled for a few seconds, with Kale successfully lodging the Maxis' jaws into the base of Roc's own, then violently slinging the huge beast back down to the ground...   
  
INCOMING! Shadow cried, and Kale only barely had the wherewithall to let go and jump out of the way in time.   
  
The charged particle cannon screamed back in, arcing up at the last second and narrowly avoiding the chimaera itself, but still missing its obviously intended target as well. Like hellfire, it flashed beneath the airborn Geno's feet, passing between both Zoids and seperating them completely.   
  
_ "He's got style at least,"_ Kale had time to muse.   
  
With an agile flip that would've simply been impossible for most Zoids, the Geno touched back down at the edge of the crater, unleashing another barrage of missiles in the process-   
  
Only to find that their would-be target was gone. Kale snorted annoyedly and promptly glared straight up to find a silver bolt coming straight down at him.   
  
"Like I didn't see _that_ coming," he commented snidely, just before leaping straight back and out of the way.   
  
Again, silver hit grime with enough force to cause an impact crater, but before Obscura's mind could even comprehend what was about to happen, the bolt came in for another try. This time, it nailed the Maxis right in its chest, causing the screen in front of him to crack and distort in a dozen different places at once, not counting the actual external damage as well.   
  
Kale let out a defiant yell, twisting the Maxis around once more and landing with a sideways skid into the grime. The silver bolt came screaming in once again, but this time, Shadow was ready for it. There was a flash of purple and black as the Ancient slammed in, only to be met in kind by a black bolt. The two promptly clashed as they had before, creating another sphere-shaped fireworks display from Hell in the process.   
  
Back and forth, the two clashed, just before finally breaking apart completely and joining into a chase that had them both spiraling up into the skies, with silver in the lead and black not far behind. For a number of seconds, the two were visible as little more than contrasting streaks of light, just before finally tearing into the clouds and passing back out above them all at the edge of Zi's atmosphere.   
  
Light faded with a pair of matching cracks of thunder, giving way to the view of both Zoids blasting in at each other with pulse cannons blazing. The Maxis again seemed to win the exchange, and by the time they'd gotten near point blank, the Ancient was again covered in scorch marks, with a few ruffled and broken feathers as well, while the Maxis simply had burns across his legs and arms.   
  
Melee brought a change though. Each Zoid struck out at the same time. Roc lashed out with both wings coming straight in like a pair of swords, cutting blades glowing brightly, while the Maxis dove down with almost serpent-like agility and slung its tail up in reply. Each Zoid took a hit - the Maxis gaining a massive double-trench in each side from shoulder to hip as a result of the blades, while the tail cracked Roc's beak in several places, along with a number of the Old One's feathers.   
  
With that, claws caught the Geno by its tail, gripping tightly while Roc visibly struggled to recover. Kale screamed incoherently and fired all of his boosters, but the chimaera was simply too powerful to rip free of that easily. Without so much as a shriek, the larger Zoid flapped its way up a little higher against the pull of the Geno's thrusters, then jolted into a spin, wings glowing brightly with the power of each and every single one of its manuevering thrusters.   
  
A second later, it let go, flinging the Geno Maxis away and allowing the other Zoid's own thrusters to do the rest. Again, Kale screamed, and again, Shadow grunted as the black beast spun and flipped wildly through the skies, only to be caught by a sprite in mid-recovery. The lightning bolt blew around the Maxis with enough power to fry a small city, and although the Zoid itself was almost entirely unscathed, Kale-   
  
"**_FUCK!!!_**"   
  
Most certainly was not.   
  
With a scream, he lurched forward and fought the urge to throw up as his insides felt like they'd just burst into flames. He was lucky that the bolt hadn't fried him completely, but it had still taken him out of action long enough that the Maxis was falling for a few seconds and-   
  
There was a slice of superheated metal against metal, and the Geno suddenly lost both back boosters. Roc swooped back upright immediately after the cut, swinging itself upside down as it came about face. Kale let out another scream, and Shadow echoed it as the dropped beneath the cloud line, only having a fraction of a second to begin bolting. By then though it was already too late.   
  
Down and down, the Geno went, taking dozens, maybe even a hundred or more seperate lightning hits within Hell's ceiling, each one a bit more violent than the one before it, and each one dealing a bit more damage to both pilot and Zoid alike. With almost every hit, Kale was left screaming and writhing in agony, and by the fifteenth or sixteenth, he'd found himself unable to even think anymore. The twentieth left him suffocating and the fiftieth caused him to start having a heart attack, but it was all over in a matter of seconds.   
  
With only Shadow keeping its pilot from dying, the Geno Maxis tumbled back down through the clouds, _covered_ in burn marks and smoking from forty or more different places. Its optics had exploded at some point in the fall, and if not for Shadow's influence, Kale's own eyes probably would've been in the same boat. Along with his internal organs. Even with his survival, the stink of burnt flesh, leather and cloth was so obvious in the cockpit that, within a second of the Maxis finally righting itself, Kale had thrown up all over himself.   
  
Shadow rumbled something incoherent - a warning - and the Maxis tried to twist out of the way. With its Organoid so focused on the pilot's survival, the Zoid was left to fend for itself as far as damages and bolting went - and that just wasn't good enough.   
  
The silver bolt crashed into the lesser Zoid's back with enough force to snap it like a twig, driving it straight down from there at several times the speed of sound. Although Kale himself was bordering on unconsciousness and heaving for air, only to scream out everytime he actually succeeded at it, he was accutely aware that the ground was coming up fast. Very fast.   
  
By the time that Shadow had finished restoring him to the point that he wasn't a screeching corpse, there was a loud crash. Metal crumpled, the Geno roared in pain and Kale found himself bleeding in a half-dozen places from his own safety harness and how it was cutting into him just to keep him in place. The grime-covered ground at the point of impact all but imploded around the two Zoids, forming a crater that was easily twice the width of an Ultrasaurus in every direction, and almost a quarter as deep. The slush that had formerly occupied the ground around them literally tidal waved out in every direction, revealing a hundred different sets of claws sticking up out of the dirt and the permafrost, along with a few gun barrels and the occasional head of something or other.   
  
With that, it all stopped...   
  
Or, more accurately, it all _started_.   
  
Even through the haze of pain, Kale was aware enough to feel a surge of something like a restrained sense of hopelessness from nearby. Without even paying attention to it, he looked around in the cockpit, finding that while the screen had finally imploded in front of him and broken entirely, it was still functioning to his sides. With half-lidded eyes, he watched as one of those menacing sets of claws in the ground stabbed up into the air, then slam back down in order to anchor itself. A second later, the Zoid that owned it ripped itself free from eons of imprisonment, resembling a Lightning Saix with heavier armor, larger teeth and a series of thrusters on its stomach and sides - among other things.   
  
"The hell?" He blurted out in what felt like a drunken stupor, his wounds rapidly healing to the point that there wouldn't even be scars.   
  
Finally, he became aware of something above him.   
  
The chimaera had become solid once again, its front right foot planted squarely between the equivelent of the Geno's shoulderblades, just between where the boosters had once been mounted.   
  
"Shadow..."   
  
What?!   
  
"Put everythin' ya got leff inta healin'," he slurred out, promptly ignoring what sounded almost like a cross between a Whale King, Berserk Fury and Death Saurer all rolled into one deafening roar, amplified a thousand times over and blared into his ears at point blank.   
  
Shadow, shaken as it seemed, complied without another word. With the chimaera distracted, Kale had an opportunity, and as brutalized as he was right now, he damn sure wasn't going to miss it.   
  
Damage undid itself rapidly over the course of a few seconds, and as it did, the head blade flipped back up into crest-mode, just before both arms gave a resurgent heave. Kale let out a scream of his own, muted by the sounds of distant roaring and explosions, not to mention the closer charged particle beams that were ripping up out of the ground almost everywhere.   
  
In an instant, the blade stabbed into the joint of Roc's front right leg, cutting all the way down to the elbow in a nasty display as the smaller Zoid stood, throwing the other onto its hind legs again. With a shriek, the chimaera staggered back and away, favoring the damaged leg as it recovered its balance.   
  
"_Game over_, you son of a _**bitch**_," Kale gleefully laughed out, giving the impulse to fire the charged particle cannon.   
  
In a split second-   
  
"**We don't have time for this.**"   
  
It was over.   
  
With those words ringing through his brain as if he'd actually heard them with his ears, Kale watched the chimaera vanish into a blinding flash of silver light, which in turn bolted away as if he didn't even matter...   
  
"... **_FUCKING CHICKEN-SHIT!!!_**"   
  
The charged particle cannon ceased powering up, Kale stubbornly brought the Maxis to face in the fleeing Ancient's direction and prepared to bolt after it-   
  
And then what appeared to be a Death Stinger unearthed itself right in front of him, just as the earlier Saix-thing flashed by and dove head-on into a black saurian Zoid that vaguely resembled a Gojulas in posture. Nearby, a mutant Saber Tiger of some sort roared its war cry and tackled a newly unearthed Blade Liger, while a blood red saurer of some kind stampeded across his field of vision.   
  
The Death Stinger brought its tail to bear, power gathering at its tip while all guns clicked, powered up and loaded to fire.   
  
Kale's half-lidded eyes twitched.   
  
The Stinger readied to fire.   
  
Kale's mouth curled into a monster's sneer.   
  
What followed was nothing short of a massacre, and as the clouds overhead blew away, there could be no denying that something horrible had happened in the distant city...

* * *

Terrain blurred into nothing but streaks of color and movement as gunfire streaked through the air. Every instinct he had was screaming to call Specular and simply flee with absolutely no regard for anything else, but his conscience was still the stronger. Something violently ripped itself up out of the ground ahead of them, and although his senses briefly registered it as looking like some kind of mutant Konig Wolf, his body had reacted before he could even finish determining what it was.   
  
Fingers clenched on an arm raker-styled joystick, tilting it outward while pulling back as his foot eased on the right accelerator for all of a fraction of a second. Pinkish-red light filtered into the cockpit from the right side, and by the time he'd even realized what he was doing, his foot had pushed back down while the other lightened up, slinging the Fury's entire body into what amounted to a buster shield haymaker. The Wolf-thing, whatever it was, only barely had time to notice the incoming blow, and by the time that it was able to try and dodge, it was already too late.   
  
The creature's severed back leg and tail rained down into a nearby crater, the rest of it landed in a horribly bent right angle a second later, its head imploding underneath the rest of it.   
  
"_Stay behind me_!" He ordered bluntly, his voice carrying more authority than even he had meant for it to. Zeke and Specular gave the mental equivelent of stunned nodding, and Bit, if he even heard the order, was probably still busy cursing Sarah for having given birth to him.   
  
A charged particle beam flared nearby, met what looked like a bubble of rushing water and splintered into a million smaller versions of itself. The beam held only as long as Vega was looking at it, and by the time he turned away, the Daemon who'd fired it was already being blindsided by some kind of warped black Stealth Viper. The longer Zoid was almost lightning fast, slinging its entire body around the Daemon's own, then constricting with such force that, were it not for the blare of gunfire and constant battle cries in the background, Vega would've _heard_ the alloy crumpling. The Viper went to fire its boosters-   
  
And was promptly ripped into a dozen different segments as the Daemon went berserk. A few seconds later, pulse lasers rained in on the thing and Vega shifted his attention straight ahead once more.   
  
There was something swooping in.   
  
"Jump!" He shouted, jerking the Fury down into a crouch and opening up each set of blades without a second thought.   
  
There was a disgusting sound of shredding metals and a pair of gigantic Pteras-like wings crashed down to along either side of the Fury and Zero's path. The golden Liger had already been airborn by the time it happened, and whatever shrieking mess of a Zoid that Vega had just clipped crashed beneath and behind it with enough force to kick up a small grime-storm in its wake.   
  
The Fury straightened up, only to duck again a second later as a nearby slugfest spilled overhead. A freakishly bladed Redler literally stabbed itself onto the body of what looked like an equally freakish winged saurer of some kind. Both Sleepers shrieked and crashed into a rock to Vega's left, with bits and pieces of both rocks and Zoids flying everywhere as a result.   
  
He barely had time to recover from _that_ near-disaster when a Command Wolf-sized Blade Liger charged into view, its shield active and its mind obviously set on a shield ram.   
  
"_Outta the way_!" Vega managed to shout, snapping both sets of blades shut, then using one to literally bat the small Zoid away, where a _monstrous_ pair of jaws ripped up out of the grime and snapped shut around it. There was a blinding flash of white from behind the pillar-like teeth belonging to the jaws, and after that, scorched little bits of Zoid came raining down from above.   
  
_ DEMON!_ Zeke bellowed, followed by the imagined sound of a smack.   
  
** He _noticed_ already,** Specular grunted.   
  
Between their panic-stricken bickering and the sudden sound of an all-too-close shriek like that of a Whale King, Vega was able to identify the jaws as belonging to a Death Saurer. That meant that, in addition to the awakening Sleepers, Nyx was now playing host to what was probably an entire _army_ of Demons.   
  
Were he not already numb from everything he'd seen, done and experienced today, Vega Obscura very likely would've had to stave off a nervous breakdown right about now.   
  
"_Lars_?" He asked, feeling what seemed like a hair being ripped away. From his brain. It always happened when a particularly important micro-sworder, such as one trailing his only concievable ride out of this Hellhole, was killed.   
  
"**_HOLD THE FUCK ON!_**" Came the not-so-polite reply, backlit to what sounded like something smacking into a steel floor, followed in turn by the sounds of closing gunfire and a missile launch. An explosion sounded, and it was followed almost instantly by a near maniacal laugh.   
  
"... I'm not even gonna ask," Vega sighed, somehow finding it disgustingly easy to see that Lars had finally discovered the joy that comes with causing wanton destruction. Even if it was technically self-defense.   
  
"_I'm coming, Vega_," Lars finally clarified, his voice still sounding terribly amused for some reason. "These sonsabitches aren't gonna stop _me_!"   
  
"... _Caution_, Lars. You aren't invincible," Vega reminded him bluntly, only to hear a grumbled acknowledgement, then a shout. Something crashed in the background, a series of curses followed suit and then: "_I'll get back to you_..."   
  
Lars' end of the comm went dead, Vega felt his left eyelid start twitching and did his best to brush it off as a mountaintop in the distance literally exploded, imploded, then exploded again over the course of four and a half seconds, with the third explosion looked increasingly atomic in nature. The shockwave it let off was intense enough that a few dozen of what looked like freak Molgas went flying by from over a mile away, followed by the half-mutilated Raptor they'd been working on. The entire group crashed into the middle of a frenzied exchange between what Vega instinctively recognized as a Dark Spiner, though the other Zoid seemed to defy any sort of identification. It was Fury-like in posture, covered in slanted blue and green armor, with a set of large machine guns sticking out of its forearms and a mandibled jaw.   
  
By the time he looked away again, the Molga freaks and the Raptor were all vapor from the second Zoid's charged particle cannon.   
  
With that, however, what looked like a rolling mob crashed into view, consisting of a dozen different Zoids, each and every one of which were unfamiliar to him, and all of which happened to be trying to slaughter each other. A grim look had time to spread across Vega's face, and each set of buster blades started whirling and powering up.   
  
"Stay. Behind me."   
  
No response, but he knew that the message got through.   
  
With that, the blur of the world around him vanished into the dozens of different blurs that were made of flailing limbs, aiming guns, swinging tails and snapping jaws. The Berserk Fury literally plunged headlong into the very heart of the violence, and as it did so, Vega Obscura slipped into his element once again.   
  
Said-element consisted of movements so quick that his mind had to go on a type of auto-pilot just to observe them all. It was like being a passenger in his own body as he guided the Fury into a stance, cutting the boosters and instead going into a straight up run. The left buster arm lashed out, blindly to some, but for Vega, it was calculated. All three blades hit the mark when they stabbed through what looked like a Gun Sniper gone wrong, paralyzing it from the neck down with one blade and getting a secure hold in its chest through the other two. Without even looking at what he was doing with the smaller Zoid, he flung it at the nearest target - some kind of hovering Cannon Tortoise with Heldigunner legs and a tail to match. The Sleeper issued a cry and was promptly bowled over, yet as this happened, the right set of buster blades had slammed shut around the head of a crocodile of some sort, just before blending it into a fine metallic slush.   
  
Both arms were brought up for the next one though, and each one shot through a large Dibison-styled monster of a Zoid without even the slightest hint of a wisecrack from Vega, its head vaporizing amidst a stream of charged particles almost instantly. The beams hit the core soon after, and what was left was reduced to rubble almost instantly with a sharp kick, leaving bits of stone to go flying in every direction.   
  
With a path almost clear, the Fury swept into a spinning-jump, its tail batting aside another mutant Konig Wolf, but failing to actually damage it in the process. With that, the Liger blurred by and Vega whipped right after it, firing his boosters almost on reflex to catch up.   
  
A few seconds later, however, something Demonic in size began to rip itself free from the ground, slinging a hundred different Sleepers flying in every direction and impaling a dozen more atop a gigantic red horn on its head, though most were small enough to rip in half with the further they slid down from the tip. Vega only barely had the time consider fighting it when the beast lurched around, punting another fifty Sleepers with its tail and kicking up a veritable grime storm with its feet.   
  
Titanic jaws split open to reveal a horrific sounding shriek, so loud that it seemed to embody death itself, and so intense that every single bullet, missile, bomb and beam - _regardless_ of size or power - within a mile went flying wildly off course, with more than a few Zoids almost liquifying from it. Vega only barely managed to feel his ears burst into a set of miniature geysers of blood before the whole world went silver with a scream.

* * *

There was a loud crash, followed by a small shockwave of grime from the impact. Bits and pieces of severed bodyparts lay strewn about in every direction, from a massive tail that had been blown off by a charged particle beam to a colossal sonic cannon of some kind that had just been ripped off all together and flung into a pack of what looked like Molgas. Three out of eight legs lay in different sections, completely removed from the rest of the body, and as it began to stone over, one could easily see a massive hole running from the top of its body to the bottom base of its tail stump.   
  
The dead Zoid in question appeared to be what was left of a Death Stinger, broken and battered to the point that its core had been ripped apart by an enemy even more violent than it was.   
  
"_**NEXT?!**_"   
  
The scream echoed, even in a continent where the only audible sounds anymore consisted of gunshots, Zoids roaring and explosions so loud that many people would've been rendered temporarily deaf by them.   
  
The response was as quick as it was unforgiving. A Raptor-like Zoid appeared almost as if out of thin air off to his right, jumping so quickly that he didn't even register it until it was almost too late. The Maxis was able to compensate though, jolting forward and swiping its tail out. The smaller Zoid was struck in the chest and thrown back and up into the air, only to have a set of dagger-like talons stab into its head before it could even land. A second later, the smaller Zoid's head was ripped off and its body left to stagger away, flailing desperately until a series of plasma bolts eviscerated it beyond recognition.   
  
A few seconds ticked by as his own demented chuckling rang through the cockpit. His ears, burnt and throbbing like the rest of him, hurt just to listen to it, and his vision was swimming so badly that it was all he could do just to define the various moving blurs as things other than part of the terrain around him.   
  
We can't keep this up, Shadow pointed out exhaustedly, giving the notion of a haggard wheeze in the process.   
  
"The hell we can't," Kale replied with a wheeze of his own.   
  
You're _dying_, Kale, Shadow growled. I'm barely even able to hold the Zoid together... It's all I can do to keep _you_ from falling apart too...   
  
"Then what's the point o' runnin'?" Kale slurred out with a small laugh. Somewhere off in the distance, a massive shockwave let off, and Kale was able to feel it more than he heard it. The thing caused his stomach to vibrate to the point that he almost started gagging, only to look up in time to see something silver bolting overhead.   
  
"Piece o' shit," he sputtered out in recognition. The bolt's only response was to curve sharply into a zig-zag, avoiding a string of charged particle beams. After that, it spiraled about, went off course as if to grab something and then...   
  
It was gone.   
  
I guess the Fire really has begun again... Shadow mused with a weak voice, just before Kale felt his presence start to fade.   
  
"Don' be pussin' out on me now, damnit," he ordered, though he didn't have enough authority left in him to convince the Organoid otherwise. In a matter of seconds, he heard the equivelent of a groan and then there was nothing. The presence in his mind was gone. The voice that had helped fuel his path of murder and destruction had gone disturbingly silent.   
  
Shadow had fallen again.   
  
Where his ancestor before him had been wracked over the same thing almost 240 years earlier though, Kale was left with little more than a hollow pit in his chest. It was already going numb by the time that he let out a sigh of his own.   
  
"Wimp," he muttered, just before prying his hands from the controls. It felt almost as if the shocking had melted his gloves to both his skin and the Maxis' odd control systems, but if it did, he didn't bother looking down to see the damage. He felt his pilot's suit peel and tear in several places as he stood, lazily yanking his feet up from the floor and causing a layer or two of melted rubber to rip from the soles of his boots in the process. Consoles automatically began to dim and fade, even though they'd already begun to flicker with static. Deprived of Shadow, and still reeling from the lingering effects of battle on its systems, there was little the Maxis could do to even keep itself powered on.   
  
"Open sessame, bitch," Kale ordered with a dull tone, even though the front screen had already faded away entirely. The hatch in front of him, crumbled in several places as it was, promptly pried itself apart, leaving the armored plate on top of that to fall open and then just plain fall _off_ a second later. Without even bothering to look at the distance to the ground below, Kale followed suit, having the luck to land in half-melted grime rather than on the fallen plate.   
  
Within a matter of seconds - seconds that felt like individual eternities for him - he had pried himself back up off the ground, dripping all over with sogging ash and melting snow as he took a few steps forward.   
  
And that was when he heard it.   
  
It was a sound loud enough that his ears would've throbbed even without all of his prior injuries. His heart skipped two or three beats from the shock of it, and his mind blindly raced to try and wrap itself around what, _exactly_, the sound was. At first, it resembled a furious roar from some kind of tyrannosaurian Zoid, and then it elevated into the high pitched echoes of an insane Whale King before dropping back down again. Regardless of what it was though, it had come from his left, and he knew, in that instant, that it was aimed at him.   
  
Where Bit Cloud had all but suffered from a nervous breakdown though, Kale Obscura let out a dim chuckle instead, even though it hurt just to laugh at this point.   
  
Without so much as a single word, he turned to face the source of the roaring, and as he did, his vision seemed to clear. The sight he was greeted with, however, was something that most people would've had nightmares about for years.   
  
A black scaled serpentine dragon, coiling high into the skies above in the distance. He couldn't properly gauge its size at this range, and he doubt that he even would've wanted to try if he could, but its body seemed to go for miles and miles, with the tip of its tail dragging along the ground and kicking up what looked like a small storm beneath it. More so than anything else though, his eyes were drawn up to its face.   
  
Across miles and miles of distance, dark brown eyes met with violently red ones that were easily a dozen or more times the size of his own Zoid. Kale's laugh almost immediately began to die down as he looked at the creature's face. It was long and broad, almost a cross between a canine and a crocodile in shape, favoring the former in the placement of its eyes. Its mouth was lined with two different rows of colossal razor sharp teeth on the top and bottom jaw. A pair of long whip-like tentacles wavered from the front of its snout, resembling a handlebar mustache. Lastly, a pair of gigantic horns crested up from the top back of his head, curling forward at the tips slightly.   
  
For a long while, Kale stared at it, and it stared back.   
  
And then, after what felt like it must have been an eternity, the King of Demons opened its jaws, a horrific white light gathering from the back of its mouth as lightning sparked from tooth to tooth. Its entire head was surrounded in a monstrous halo, and as Kale watched, he could actually _feel_ his skin tingling even at this distance.   
  
What followed was utterly inexplicable. It began as nothing but a shortlived chuckle, and then carried on into a morbid snicker before, finally, Kale burst into laughter that was as joyful as it was maniacal. He would've probably bent forward and even stumbled around from how hard the laughing was, but it hurt too much to even raise his hands at this point. With that though, he watched as the last ounces of power gathered, the halo imploding into a tight ring of energy in front of the beast's gaping mouth.   
  
"You _honestly_ think that's gonna get rid o' me?" He asked, still laughing. The slur in his voice was gone now.   
  
The ring shattered into a million smaller bolts of lightning, each one arcing around a far larger, infinitely more intense beam of energy so bright that it was almost blinding just to look at.   
  
"It's not even gonna stop me," he pointed out, even as the beam closed in. The shockwaves being let off by it at every mile were powerful enough to sheer the tops off of nearby mountains and force even the fighting to lull to a stop beneath the beam. "I'm God, after all," he laughed, just before finding the will to throw his arms up and to either side, regardless of the jolting pain it caused.   
  
The beam came closer. Close enough that the world around him was turning a solid white and his own shadow extended as far back as a hundred feet.   
  
"**_DO YOU HEAR ME?!_**" He demanded gleefully, with the beam now so close that his hair was starting to singe and his skin was beginning to char.   
  
"**_I!_**"   
  
His vision ceased to exist as anything but a white wall.   
  
"**_AM!_**"   
  
His hearing cut out completely, blood rushing from his ears as his clothing caught fire and the grime around him vaporized.   
  
"**_GOD!!!_**"   
  
Before he could even start laughing again, the air had been burned out of his lungs. A fraction of a nanosecond later, both he and the Maxis were bathed in light as the beam finally hit. Before the ground could even explode, Kale Obscura - the elder of two brothers, one of the worst mass murderers in recorded history and heir apparent to Raven's bloodlust - ceased to exist.   
  
Asmodeus, the King of Demons, lived again.   
  


_ End Chapter Eight_

* * *

**Author's Note:** ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! Sprays everything in sight with a plasma cannon. .  
  
Anywho, hopefully this chapter lived up to every single ounce of planning and forethought I put into it.  
  
Oh, and to everyone who thought Kale would get bitchstomped by Madison and Roc: **HAHAHAHA** :p Speaking as the **author**, the one who knows everything about this story, that fight could've gone in any way, and if Madison and Roc hadn't gone off when they did, Kale would've very likely killed both of them.  
  
Hopefully the Vega Scenes held the perfect mixture of confusion, anxiety, shocked numbness and supreme _violence_ as well.  
  
And Asmodeus? **_HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!_** >.> Yes people, _that_ is the Demon King. And yes, it _was_ practically lying under Bit's nose almost the entire time he's been in Nyx.  
  
Next chapter is when we finally get around to Champton. Dear, loveable, soon-to-be-non-existent Champton. Oh, how I'll love burning her to the ground... Urinating on the ashes... Dumping sulfuric acid on it and then nuking it all into oblivion... Then carpet bombing the crater...  
  
But anyway, as has been the case lately, replies to reviews can be found in a link on my FFN profile.  
  
Sh33p out, folks. 


	9. Into the Fire

**Foreword:** Soundtrack is as follows.  
  
**Scene One:** Rurouni Kenshin - The Wars of the Last Wolves  
**Scene Two:**  
Korn - Alone I Break  
.hackSIGN - A Stray Child  
**Scene Three:** Guano Apes - Open Your Eyes  
**Scene Four:** E.S. Posthumus - Pompeii  
**Scene Five:** Witch Hunter Robin - Flame  
**Scene Six:** Witch Hunter Robin - Tactics  
**Scene Seven:** Linkin Park - Crawling(Reanimation version)

* * *

** Tides of Darkness**  
Into the Fire   
  


  
  
Roughly an hour ago, Leon Tauros had still been wiping his eyes after a rather awkward reunion with the mother he never expected or believed that he would see again. Granted, it was a one time thing and it would never happen again, but it had left him feeling as if a few million tons from the weight of the world were lifted from his shoulders. Even though she had told him, to his face, that he was probably going to be seeing death up close and personal tonight, she'd had faith in him. She believed that he would be able to survive the night with flying colors.   
  
She had actually compared him to Van Fleiheit, no less.   
  
Roughly an hour ago, Leon Tauros had spoken to a woman who, practically speaking, had as much power over the city and fortress of Champton as the Champs themselves. Over the course of ten minutes, she had explained to him that he was effectively being drafted into the local defense forces with a full military commission, equivelent in rank to a full-fledged Captain, which was also the highest rank his boyhood idle had ever achieved. When it was all said and done, she had slapped a new registration key into his hand, his father and Leyon had both slapped him on the back and the three had done the same thing as his mother.   
  
They had all compared him to Van Fleiheit.   
  
Roughly a half hour ago, Leon Tauros had finished assembling a half-squad that took the term, rag-tag and redefined it. Two Lightning Saixes, a busted looking green Shield Liger, a Gordos with more guns than a small battalion on it, and an Aro Saurer with a set of laser chainsaws mounted on a Berserk Fury-like backpack, among other things. He'd only known two of the pilots from prior experience - namely the Tasker sisters - and everyone else just happened to have the right look in their eyes drew his attention. Berke, Walter and Howard.   
  
The six of them didn't even have a squad name. The closest they'd come to one was Howard's suggestion of calling themselves Firemen. It fit, given that Leon had informed them that they would be rushing around roughly three quarters of the battlefield, trying to 'put out brushfires,' a less common term amongst military planners for reinforcing places where a defensive line broke. Unfortunately for Howard, nobody else, Leon included, had taken to the name, resulting in both a chorus of bland looks and some head shaking.   
  
Roughly ten minutes ago, the nameless half-squad had taken position just behind the front lines, which were in turn scattered all over the city-turned-enormous ghost town. Everything had been tense, nobody was speaking and everyone felt ready to implode - Leon included.   
  
Roughly thirty seconds ago, the calm was shattered into oblivion when not one or two, but _eight_ charged particle beams had blown straight up into the skies above, literally tearing through the ground and shattering eight different buildings like glass in the process. The squads nearest the explosions were thrown into shocked disarray in spite of their preparedness, and a few Zoids were just plain thrown. A few hundred yards into the air, no less. After that, the ground had started breaking apart simultaneously, almost everywhere in the city and even a few places within the fortress itself. Claws ripped up through dirt, cement and asphalt, while teeth sheered through reinforced steel bars like so much tin foil. Somewhere along the way, what looked like bubbles of violently shifting water literally erupted from the ground with enough force to send debris and even a few Zoids flying.   
  
In those thirty seconds, Leon Tauros had _felt_ the whole world falling apart around him. He had heard his fellow pilots mumbling things to themselves, or trying in some miserable way to make light of the situation, and he had seen the firefights and melees breaking out almost everywhere at once.   
  
In those thirty seconds, Leon Tauros had realized why everyone had compared him to Van Fleiheit.   
  
It was because he was the only one who actually had any idea of what he was doing.   
  
"Get into formation, everyone. We're going to work."   
  
There were a series of acknowledgements as Leon brought the Red Blade forward, feeling his stomach twisting into a knot as he activated his shield. The Gordos brought up the rear, Aro Saurer took the left flank, Shield Liger at the right and the Saixes shielded from direct sight by Leon himself, effectively rendered into a pair of arrows on a drawn bow.   
  
With little else to be said, Leon and his squad dove into the fires, and somehow, he doubted any of them would come out alive...

* * *

_"Crap!" Lars Torson screamed to himself in-mind as the Bladeler(his new name for the Redleresque Zoids that were covered in switchblades) stabbed by, raking at least three four of its knives across the Foe Hammer's outer hull. Plating gave way like tin foil, spewing out sparks and leaving kinetic and flame retardent gels and foams to come spewing out before automatically hardening into the most makeshift of seals. Without even thinking about the numerous laws of physics he was probably on the verge of breaking - not to mention a few laws of common sense - the mechanic-turned-transport pilot swerved his Zoid into a wild banking turn as the Bladeler was coming about.   
  
At the same time, he'd squinted his eyes shut behind his glasses and pulled every trigger he could get his fingers about.   
  
Roughly a tenth of a second later, there were a few dozen loud cracks of armor piercing slugs and plasma bolts across the Bladeler's back as it came around, narrowly missing an attempt to shave off the Hammerhead II's nose. By the time he'd opened his eyes and looked around, he was able to clearly see the shot-up Redler freak limping back around and trailing enough smoke to gag a firehouse in the process.   
  
"I don't have time for you!" Lars shouted out, and felt himself becoming giddy with excitement that he'd managed to say it with a straight face. Almost as if timed in a movie, one of his missiles fired almost on the dot with the end of his exclaimation. Another tenth of a second later, the projectile hit the Bladeler in the face and detonated, sheering its head off and leaving it to tumble out of the skies-_   
  
And after that, he had only barely been able to right himself with a laugh when a charged particle beam shot out in front of him. The world had gone silver and a few minutes later, Lars had regained consciousness, only to find that he was no longer alone, nor in control, on his ship. The flight wheel in front of him shifted about as if entirely on its own, and virtually every monitor on the bridge seemed to have been rerouted to internal surveillance cameras that he hadn't even known existed until now.   
  
The sights he was greeted with were not pleasant ones. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Straightening out his glasses and staring with wide eyes into the nearest screen, Lars was left to be a silent observer to a scene playing out in the middle of the newly crowded Zoid hangar. Backlit to the statuesque figures of the Berserk Fury and something closely resembling the Liger Zero with a few new weapons and gold armoring, five figures stood in close proximity to each other.   
  
He only recognized three of them. Vega and Specular, plus a golden Organoid, a woman who rather frightened him just with her appearance and a man he'd seen before only a few times in person.   
  
Bit Cloud.   
  
The blonde looked as if he'd gone through Hell, and so did Vega and the woman for that matter. Vega had some dried vomit on his flight suit, the woman was covered almost head to toe in grime and Bit was practically coated with a few dried out layers of blood stains from the forehead down to the soles of his boots...   
  
And he had his fingers wrapped around Vega's throat.   
  
What was even more disturbing was that Vega wasn't even fighting back, and all that Lars could do was sit there in shock while observing it all. He couldn't even will himself to have a gaping jaw.   
  
"Your... Fault... I could've stopped... _Everything_..."   
  
"No, you couldn't have," Vega replied without missing a beat, even though Bit was trying to strangle him.   
  
"_Shut. Up_," the bloodier pilot growled out so viciously that Lars felt his spine tingling. "If not for you and your _fucking brother_ getting in my way... I could've stopped... _All. Of. This._"   
  
"No, you couldn't," Vega replied again. He didn't even flench when Lars watched Bit start to lift him up off the ground by his throat... Didn't even bring his hands up or stand on his tip-toes to try and keep the strain off of his neck.   
  
"_Yes. I. Could. Have_," the blonde snarled again, and Lars could now see that was all but trembling as he said it. "You're just like Kale... You've _always_ been getting in my way... Holding me back and... And throwing me off course..." "Take a look in the mirror, Bit," Vega ordered bluntly, and at once, Lars could see that he truly _lacked_ any sense of compassion or self-preservation at the moment. "I'm not the one trying to _strangle a twelve year old_."   
  
Something... Snapped.   
  
In an instant, Bit's grasp failed completely. Vega dropped several inches and landed perfectly on both feet without even bending his legs. A few seconds ticked by as the blonde drew his hands back, staring at them and muttering things to himself before finally sputtering out: "I need... To be... Alone... For a while..."   
  
"I understand," Vega replied, finally easing out of what now looked like war mode. The woman had already turned away and-   
  
She was _already_ gone.   
  
_ "Shit,"_ Lars had time to think to himself before trying to shove back from the console, only to find his nostrils greeted by the stench of ash and fading sulfur, while the chair itself refused to move no matter how hard he pushed it.   
  
"Calm down," an abnormally blunt, apathetic voice ordered. Lars winced again.   
  
"Don't s'pose you could tell me what the hell's going on, couldja?" He asked, half-expecting to be clubbed to death before he could even finish speaking.   
  
"There's an... Organoid-thing named Roc bonded to the Foe Hammer's core right now," a new voice answered well after Lars had asked his question, followed by another swish of the door. It was Vega, and with his arrival, the spikey haired woman with the club stepped away, heading towards a nearby seat and nonchalantly taking it without even a word.   
  
"Uh... Other than that."   
  
"All _Hell_ just broke loose."   
  
"... Again?" Lars found himself asking numbly.   
  
"No. For real this time," Vega answered with the same cold and merciless tone with which he'd used on Bit just a minute or two earlier.

* * *

It was all a blur of indistinct movement, gunfire and virtually unreadable chatter across every single channel. Her insides felt as if they'd been yanked into her spine and compressed up into her lungs as the blue Command Wolf nimbly landed, then jumped again, causing the Daemon it had been standing on to roar in anger. In another instant, she had landed, facing a standard colored Rev Raptor with blazing skulls painted on its chest, hips and cheeks, only to watch it all but blur into a jump of its own right over her.   
  
Another scream followed, and when Leyla Tsun brought the Wolf around again, the Raptor was little more than a pile of scrap with its core ripped out. For all of a tenth of a second, she was able to stomach watching the Daemon's jaws clench shut around the now dead Zoid's heart, and then found herself having to turn away or face the urge to gag.   
  
Another instant later, there was an inhuman shriek as a dark red Iron Kong charged into view and delivered a straight punch into the Daemon's cheek, almost bowling the larger Zoid right over only to be smack aside with a tail swipe. The Daemon staggered for a few moments, and then hurtled off of its feet and crashed into a former shop with a resounding explosion when a pair of Supercannon rounds hit it in the side. The offending Gojulas, Travis Paxton's own, wasn't far behind either, literally stampeding in from another street and slamming into the Daemon from behind as it got up.   
  
Were Leyla able to think clearly, she probably would've called the man completely insane.   
  
And chances are, she would've been spot-on in her assessment.   
  
"Back-up!" Echoed over the comm, and Leyla responded before anyone else had even finished hearing the words. Trampling over the dead Raptor's metallic corpse with little conscious regard for the fleeing pilot, then slipping in past the Gojulas as it staggered back from a massive slash across the chest. Even as sparks blew out of the bigger Zoid's chest, Leyla had shut Paxton out and gone on the offensive-   
  
And the Daemon was ready and waiting for her.   
  
Smashing through what was left of a battered brick wall, the Wolf literally slid to a crouching halt under a clawed swipe from the Daemon's left arm, while Leyla brought the heavy rifle to bear on its left hip at the same time.   
  
Two trigger pulls later, a 150mm slug and four smaller standard rounds punched into the Daemon's armor, leaving pock marks and a small crater in their wake. The recoil from the shots, and the angle at which they'd been fired, allowed the Wolf to continue sliding, even as Leyla tilted the gun straight forward and instinctively rolled her Zoid onto its side. The decision was one that kept her from being nailed with a whip-like crack from the beast's tail, which in turn shattered the wall of another nearby building and-   
  
Leyla was unable to see what happened next. The Command Wolf crashed feet first into the back wall of what had once been a flower shop, and the building promptly collapsed a second later.   
  
"Tsun!" One of her team-mates cried.   
  
There was a grating screech of metal on metal, then something went flying and crashed nearby.   
  
"I'm fine!" She managed to shout right back, ignoring the cracks in her cockpit glass and coaxing the Command Wolf back up from under its pile. When it emerged, it was completely covered in dust, and Leyla was greeted by the view of a Red Horn with both hiblits blazing as it plowed straight into the battered looking Daemon, which she could now see boasted a pair of _very_ nasty looking craters in its right side. The Horn bellowed, driving harder and harder into the Daemon's shin before finally causing it to trip and falter back a few steps, being pelted with gunfire all the while-   
  
Only to be all but immolated by a return salvo from the Daemon's own rifles and pulse rifles. The pilot didn't even get to scream.   
  
"_Son of a bitch_," Paxton could barely be heard, biting out over the broadband. An instant later, two Supercannon rounds plowed into the Daemon's head and causing it to again stagger back, vomiting fire and smoke from the long abandoned cockpit in the head. Another salvo from the Gojulas' quad-cannons rocked the Daemon, but failed to do anywhere near as much damage-   
  
And then the Kong came flying back into view, the thrusters on its back spraying so brightly that they were almost blinding. A single massive hand slapped down onto the top of the Daemon's head and, as the Kong landed, swiftly forced it down into the ground, where it punched straight through a century of concrete and hit the former store's basement-   
  
Which was in turn followed by the entire floor of what was left of the other shop giving way. The Kong and the Daemon both vanished in the ensuing cloud of dust and debris, while Leyla's Command Wolf fought to retain its footing.   
  
Without even thinking of a proper complaint to God for what was going on right now, Leyla brought the rifle to bear again, blindly firing into the basement.   
  
"_Cut the crap, Leyla_!" Paxton ordered angrily, only to be followed by a blue-and-black blur with gold sidelines. Something roared its way into the cloud and, over the next few seconds, there were only the repetitive sounds of gunfire, roaring, bellowing and the sounds of metal sheering through metal, and then finally, a single _loud_ crack.   
  
The Daemon went flying, all two hundred-and-fifty tons of it going airborn with a number of its teeth missing and a new fist-shaped dent on its throat. Again, without even thinking, Leyla took aim and fired for where she _knew_ the gap would be...   
  
When the Daemon landed next, it literally shattered into a thousand pieces upon impact with the ground, even as a stunningly bright red-and-white soul shot up from its chest and back, arcing high into the skies before blipping out of existence as if it had never even been there at all. Even though it was dead and in pieces by now, she knew her one shot had pierced through the same spot as the one before it, rupturing the core as a result.   
  
Were she in any frame of mind to actually consider what she was doing, she probably would've been rather satisfied by what she had just done.   
  
"One down!" Jack's voice rang out enthusiastically as the Blade Liger Simulacrum emerged from the former basement of the shop, followed in turn by the battered looking Iron Kong.   
  
"Too many to go," Travis replied bluntly, and Leyla found herself agreeing with him before she ever even wrapped her mind around what he'd said.

* * *

The battle breaking out in every direction was so violent that the word itself may as well have been going out of style just to describe it. To the North, ancient minds even older than his own were being shut out of existence so methodically and with such speed that he would've felt ill if he tried to put any attention in the matter. To the South, newer minds - human ones - were being snuffed out left and right. It was the same in the East and West too. The whole area was little more than a death trap at this point, and still the humans kept fighting it out.   
  
To the North, a glowing metal talon stabbed down through a Raptoresque creature's head and tore back out through its mouth. Gunfire rained and a second later, the Raptor died like so many others. To the South, his attention was captured by the mid-battle roar of a Red Liger, shield ramming into the gut of a Daemon while a pair of Lightning Saixes boosted in and jumped over it, effectively dive-swiping the gattling rifles from its back. His fractured mind's eye shifted from there, ignoring it all in favor of a glare to the East, where an iron curtain if firepower caught a pack of freak Molgas completely off guard after they'd swarmed and destroyed a pair of Command Wolves.   
  
And then to the West, he was inexplicably drawn from atop his perch. Organic-metal feet shifted this way and that, gripping into age-old concrete for purchase while a pair of three-taloned hands fiddled with each other. Mismatched optics tilted this way and that, struggling to avoid looking at that which called him. Finally though, his red-and-blue head tilted uncontrollably, as if gripped by a muscle spasm, before focus was brought to bear on a single target: A light blue Command Wolf with a long-range rifle.   
  
With a majesty and precision that defied its own make, the underequipped Wolf darted between friend and foe alike, its rifle swinging about in every direction and firing seemingly at random. Everytime a shot went off though, something took a hit - be it a freak Molga, a Raptor or a larger beast like the lone Dark Spiner that was currently carving a murderous swath of death through Champton's defenses, step by tedious step. It looked as if enclosed in a surging bubble of water, and with each step it took, the ground formed an increasingly steep, increasingly wide crater around its position, which in turn lead to a gigantic ditch almost a tenth of a mile long by now and-   
  
And nothing being thrown at it could pierce the bubble. Every attack from a heavy missile to Supercannon rounds to a Megalomax, even a misfired charged particle beam seemed to hit the bubble, swirl into orbit around it and shoot off in some unpredictable direction or other. Each step was a tenuous labor that he knew well enough to predict by heart: One foot was locked at any given moment, the other scraped along the ground to move forward, locked down and the process was repeated with the other. It was slow, yes, and it probably would've been a mind numbing process for a human pilot, but the Dark Spiner wasn't human.   
  
It didn't even _have_ a pilot now.   
  
Only the desire to fight. To fight and to continue fighting - to _kill_ until it was destroyed or deactivated again.   
  
Finally though, someone in the blue Command Wolf's squad seemed to get an idea of how to stop it. An Iron Kong stampeded around in front of it like a football player going in for the roughest tackle possible, then all but dove into the Ion Field, keeping at least one limb planted into the ground at all times. A few seconds later, he heard the shudder of alloy contacting alloy in the form of a punch to the knee. A second after that, it was repeated, until finally, the Spiner let out a viciously distorted shriek and dropped the field all together. The Iron Kong, unfortunately, was caught in the blowback of the ceasing distortion, and ended up being sent flying all the way into one of Gyran Fortress's time-tested walls with such force that he almost lost his balance from the way the whole base seemed to rattle.   
  
But the Spiner didn't get the chance to restore the field. The Wolf was too quick. A single shot knifed through a spine, two smaller ones blew out the one next to it and a diving claw-swipe shattered two more after those. In an instant, the Command Wolf landed with a skid, its rifle swinging about and firing point blank into the Spiner's knee before it ran off again, weaving between collapsed buildings and piles of burning rubble as the larger Zoid staggered to the side, only to come about and open fire-   
  
Just before heaving its head lopped off by a diving leap-swipe from a Blade Liger Simulacrum, which landed and promptly took off all over again, all but plunging headfirst into another Molga swarm to try and bail out the group's other Command Wolf.   
  
Again, his attention shifted, leering over towards the trio of Gun Snipers positioned atop Gyran's highest reachable point. A red one shooting South, and two blue ones for East and West. Nothing for the North though, which was also the least destroyed part of it all. Considering that they were the least interesting though, he again tried to find another aspect of the battle to focus on...   
  
And instead watched as one of the Snipers, along with a rather sizeable portion of the Western wall, ceased to exist. It all happened over the course of a few hundredths of a second, impossibly fast for a human to register but disturbingly easy for a creature like him. A charged particle beam had been fired from somewhere in the very thick of the battle, the Sniper pilot had tried to stop it by scoring a round down the barrel and the Sleeper had been knocked back enough that the beam instead went upward and sliced through the wall. Suffice to say, it hadn't stopped there, and by the time either of the other Gun Sniper pilots had even begun to register what had just happened, it was already over.   
  
"**_CLAIRE!!!_**"   
  
It was a scream so loud, over so many frequencies that Borealis felt static surge through his ears, cringing as a human would at the sound of nails on a chalkboard. The vaporized Sniper pilot's apparent sibling was so shocked that she even unlocked herself to go and try to see if, by some miracle, her sister had survived...   
  
**_ Welcome to the new Endtimes_**, Borealis thought with a grim clarity that his fractured mind shouldn't have possessed. Without even bothering to watch the remainder of the morbid spectacle, he again turned away. It was going to be a long, bloody night...

* * *

The targeting reticule was little more than a blur across the screen as the Dark Horn's hiblit swung about, trying - and failing - to keep track on the movements of a single Raptor. Rounds sprayed in almost every direction as the smaller Zoid dashed around the larger, closing in from behind with a pair of rather nasty looking beam saws in place of its descendent's scythes.   
  
And that was where she caught it with a last ditch swipe of the tail, all but hurling her Zoid into the blow with grit teeth. Suffice to say, the attack connected and the Raptor went flying with a colossal dent in its chest, screeching all the while before it finally crashed back first into a nearby building. Before tonight, it had been a grocery store. Now it was little more than a pile of rubble being used to bury a little monster.   
  
Without even thinking about that though, she brought the Dark Horn about to face the pile and opened up with the Zoid's heavy beam cannon, not to mention the triple impact cannon on its back.   
  
A few seconds later, there was a blinding flash of bluish white light and the rubble became little more than a funeral pyre to a creature that had undoubtedly become nothing but a statue by now. With that, Marry Champ heaved a small sigh and turned away, her tunnel vision giving way to the clarity of the big picture as a Godos went flying by, ripped in two by some kind of beam weapon.   
  
Another Zoid ripped itself apart in an explosion in front of her, sending shrapnel flying in every direction as a pack of those freakish looking Molgas churned towards her-   
  
Only to be intercepted from the side by a stampeding Red Horn, all of its guns blazing as it crashed into the mob and singlehandedly started ripping them apart.   
  
_ "Gotta be somewhere else I can help out..."_ She thought, turning away for a moment only to hear a mind numbing scream from the pilot of the other Horn. By the time she looked back, he was already dead, the head of his Zoid slagged with acid and its insides being mulched by the Molga freaks.   
  
Without even thinking, she blurted out a few curses as loudly as her lungs would allow, then pulled the triggers. All of them. The ensuing barrage killed nine out of ten Molgas and left the Red Horn dead as well, leaving the tenth Molga to go airborn for a few moments before a razor freak Redler crashed into it at mach one. Both Zoids erupted into a fireball and crashed into one of Gyran's ancient walls, though the old structure absolutely refused to give even to that.   
  
And speaking of Gyran...   
  
"_Shit_!" She bit out at the sight of where a charged particle beam had burnt right through one of the upper walls and taken off part of the top of the fortress itself. Before her mind could even wrap around _that_ though, she noticed that one of the two remaining Gun Snipers was firing almost angrily at something. A quick turn to her left and she'd spotted exactly what that thing was: One of the larger red Sleepers had taken position to fire at the base once again, even as sniper rounds pierced into its armor with a relentlessness that bordered on insanity.   
  
With every shot though, the huge beast did little more than shake a small bit, its armor barely breaking open at the points of impact as a hellish glow began to come from its gaping mouth, caused by a sphere of some kind of energy swirling into existence there.   
  
"No you don't!" She heard herself shouting, not even realizing what she was saying at the time. Fingers again clenched on all triggers as the Dark Horn began to gather speed, chugging forward with all guns blazing as a result.   
  
Where the Sniper's rounds had done little more than annoy the beast, the Dark Horn's onslaught caught its attention and, to put it bluntly, pissed it _way_ the Hell off. Without so much as an ounce of hesitation, the creature shifted its weight around almost violently and turned to face the coming Dark Horn, its armor quickly covered in minor dents, dings and burn marks from the stampeding Zoid's arsenal. With a speed that would've made a Geno Saurer weep, the gun finished charging and the Sleeper readied to fire-   
  
Only to take Marry's Crasher Horn right in the chest with enough raw force to throw its head straight up and back. Instantly, the beam fired and the shockwave of pressure it released almost pushed the Dark Horn's feet inches into the ground, while the blast _did_ shove the larger Daemon down. Like a pillar of light from the darkest reaches of the underworld, the beam shot up into the skies, eviscerating a Hammer Head and blowing a Pteras off course enough that it crashed face first into a Bladeler, sending both Zoids falling down to the ground somewhere nearby.   
  
More sniper rounds careened in, but for all the good they did, the Gun Sniper's pilot might as well have come out and jabbed at the thing with a pointy stick.   
  
Finally though, the beast began to recover and tilt its head down, but Marry was as fast as she was desperate, flinging the Horn's head up once again and stabbing its namesake weapon right into the Daemon's stomach while firing the hiblit and beam cannons, causing some real damage at long last. Still though, the creature kept struggling to lower its head, finally grappling onto the Dark Horn's sides with its oversized hands, then cutting the beam all together.   
  
The next thing Marry knew, the world was a blur and the damage indicators were screaming - as was the locator. Where equipment screamed though, she held her tongue - chiefly because she had a deathly fear of biting it off when she landed...   
  
And the landing was anything _but_ gentle. Every single ounce of raw force jolted through both her and the Zoid as it crashed side-first into the same wall that had only recently been shot up with a charged particle beam. Within a matter of microseconds, the Dark Horn sank almost a dozen inches into the ancient structure, only to finally grind to a halt and slump back out, falling what must've been another twenty yards straight down and into the ground below.   
  
A wave of dust kicked up on impact, and Marry felt unbelievably lightheaded as she opened her eyes, feeling bruised all over her right side and in the places where the harness straps ran over her body. It almost felt like she'd been cut a few times as well and-   
  
"Crap," she muttered out with a sideways look, the cockpit glass having cracked hideously in that direction. Alarms were blaring all over every console as she looked down, seeing a damage read-out that indicated most, if not all of the armor on either side of the Horn was missing, while the right leg stabilizers were on the verge of exploding all together.   
  
"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, _crap_," Marry felt herself grit out while hastily ripping one hand from the controls and all but dancing it across the consoles, diverting as much power as she could towards regeneration. It wasn't like she'd be able to miraculously grow back a limb or anything, but she could at least manage to reinforce the legs and-   
  
And the Daemon was closing in with a speed that something of that size simply _should not_ have possessed...   
  
Shaking uncontrollably by now, Marry swallowed back on the growing lump in her throat, risking a sideways glance at the creature as it came closer...   
  
Closer...   
  
And then, finally...   
  
There was a crack of what almost sounded like thunder. Then another after that, followed by a scream as something came whirling in like a bullet, striking the Daemon on its upper right flank with enough torque to violently shove the thing face first into the dirt even as it was skidding sideways. A second bullet-like attack came screaming in after that, crashing into the Sleeper's head as it started to get back up and almost decapitating it in the process.   
  
At about the same time, both bullets faded to reveal a pair of Ligers, one red and the other green, just before both of them leapt aside. A pair of deafeningly quick bolts later, the Daemon shrieked and rolled onto its left side, smoke and fire vomiting out of a pair of gargantuan holes in its right hip.   
  
A few seconds later, two streaks of black and red came all but flying in, only to grind to a halt towards the downed Sleeper's rear and start opening fire on it. Another shock of thunder followed while the green Liger's sides split down to reveal a set of missile launchers, both of which emptied themselves into the creature and-   
  
And finally, the Daemon let out an unnatural sounding shriek that sounded more akin to a human scream as one or more of the attacks ruptured its core, causing the beast's midsection to rip apart as another pillar of light shot skyward.   
  
Without even taking the time for a thank you, the quartet of Zoids, and the slow Gordos that was backing them up, shifting their focus in the direction of where an Aro Saurer was fighting a losing battle with a Raptor, then took off. Marry only barely had the time of night to even think of what had just happened before her own instincts, however poorly developed they still were, kicked in and forced her attention back to the task at hand.   
  
_ "It's going to be a miracle if anyone survives to the morning,"_ she thought in an utterly detached fashion while grasping the controls a bit tighter than before, then forcing herself to relax her hold as she pulled the Dark Horn up from the ground.

* * *

Static screeched through her ears as the other Command Wolf shrieked and erupted in flames, some of its vitals having taken one too many hits from acid and beam weaponry to remain intact any longer. There was a blast of smoke and fire from the Zoid's right side as one of its legs literally snapped off, followed by a Molga-freak crashing almost face-first into one of its others. The burning Wolf promptly fell, its cockpit opening up as the pilot leapt out.   
  
She knew him from a distance as one Alex Silverman. She didn't know his past, didn't know his age, didn't even know his favorite food. She just knew that he was on her side, and he was not running for his life amidst a virtual storm of ancient monsters that didn't know the meaning of the word, mercy.   
  
Anymore, she didn't even care about his name. She just knew that it was her job to try and save him.   
  
With that in mind, Leyla Tsun guided the blue Command Wolf into a zig-zag, passing between three different Molgas before grinding to a halt and stabbing a claw through the side of a third's head. The smaller Zoid flailed miserably, spewing acid at the dead Wolf in front of it before swift half-twist from the claw struck into its core and ruptured it. Without even waiting for the creature's soul to come pouring out, she shifted her gaze back towards Alex's position, watching the man dive out of the way of another Molga's left wheel and almost get run through by falling debris in the process.   
  
Continuing onward, she managed to leap over another Molga, which was promptly shot to bits by Paxton from a distance, then sideswipe one of its comrades out of the way. She was so close now that she could almost see the look on his face...   
  
_ "Just a bit further..."   
  
_ She became close enough to see his expression as he stopped and looked up at her Zoid, smiling as if he were seeing an angel descend from heaven and-   
  
And close enough to hear his bones crunching as a Molga's wheel found him and ran him down. It happened in the course of a tenth of a second, but Leyla was able to see it play out as if it were a two hour movie played in slow motion. It seemed to take an instant for the spike-rimmed wheel to crash into the front of the man, mowing him down so quickly that he was still smiling with hope in his eyes even as his face vanished beneath it.   
  
Speechless, all she could do was stare in shock as it happened, and then...   
  
Time sped back up to normal.   
  
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Leyla whipped the longrifle up and gained a lead on the Sleeper, firing without the slightest inkling of hesitation. Less than a hundredth of a second later, the slug plowed through the side of the Zoid with enough force to knock it over and roll it onto its back, where a barrage from the lesser cannons blew its stomach open. Another second ticked by and it was all up close and personal, with the blue Wolf's head plunging into the flailing, smoking Molga's body.   
  
Leyla heard Paxton ordering her to back off, or watch her flank. She saw the cockpit glass around her starting to crack here and there from the internal movements of the Molga, brought on by its own struggles. She felt her Wolf's teeth slicing into the Core chamber of the smaller Zoid. She smelled the smoke leaking into the cockpit through the cracks, but most of all...   
  
She _tasted_ its blood as her Command Wolf ripped out its Core and bit it in two, shaking its head so violently in the process that chunks went flying in every direction before the original halves had even finished breaking apart.   
  
And as the parts hit the ground, her mind seemed to slow back down out of its killing frenzy, attention splitting in a half a dozen directions at once as she realized just what was still going on around her-   
  
"... **_FUCK OUTTA THE WAY, DAMNIT!_**" Paxton's voice thundered through her ears, and she reacted before she'd even recognized it. By the time the man had finished speaking, the Blue Wolf was airborn, taking into a series of leaps right out of the Molga-freak stampede before skidding to a halt down the street, just as Supercannon rounds, missiles and a barrage of regular gunfire came pouring in from behind where she'd previously been positioned.   
  
In a matter of seconds, the Molga swarm was reduced to a bunch of dead or disabled corpses, while the street itself was lit up to the point that it was almost blinding as most of their souls went skyward like so many others.   
  
Finally though, the lights faded and Leyla was left to stare blankly at the Gojulas, Simulacrum, Kong and Gunsniper Wild Weasel that made up what little remained of her squad. For the briefest of moments, she was almost _daring_ them to accuse her of some kind of mistake, and during that time, she was actually numbed enough with shock to think that she could convince them otherwise.   
  
And that was when the world turned white, and all that she could do was scream...

* * *

A lot can happen in the course of a single split second. More than any human being could ever comprehend. More than any Zoidian could imagine. More than even the Zoids themselves ever concieved of being possible. A single moment - the time it took for a grain of sand to fall to the bottom of an hourglass - was all that it took for his attention, and his fractured, broken mind, to shift across the battlefield. Everything happened in slow motion for him in this one moment, and as his consciousness shifted, so to did his sight. Like the eyes of a phantom, his vision shifted across the war zone...   
  
From the East, it began to move, sliding by the view of a lone Red Horn suicidally plowing head-on into the ion field of a raging Dark Spiner, then moving onward to the North. There, the lone beast known as the Gun Raptor was caught in the midst of a sideways flip, one of its feet stabbed up into the air and its toes raking across the stomach of a raptor as its handguns fired, the rounds literally streaking before his eyes in slow motion.   
  
He didn't linger long enough to view where they landed though, as his sight was again diverted, passing to the West and slinging back down to the South, where a red Liger was caught in the midst of slicing through the body of a Raptor while a Lightning Saix was in mid-air above it, its claws only scant inches from crashing into the Sleeper's head at speeds similar to the very bullets that had whipped through his vision just nanoseconds before.   
  
And again, it shifted... His sight turning involuntarily to zoom in on the top of the very building that he knew was in front of him the whole time, where a swooping Bladeler's switchblades had crashed into the cockpit of one of the Gunsnipers, shattering glass and sending blood flying in every single direction at once as the smaller Zoid shrieked and started to fall, its head tearing apart in the process.   
  
A lot can happen in a moment, but none of it compared to what happened the very instant it all ended as his vision turned again, homing on a single figure, perched atop a narrow tower and framed by a mixture of explosions, black smoke rising into a starry night sky and the appearance of red moonlight glimmering off of a checkered blue-and-red body.   
  
And as he zoomed in to meet his own eyes, he felt it happen.   
  
He saw it too, because as he zoomed in, his eyes were not his own. Within a fraction of the time it had taken for him to orbit the battlefield, the Organoid known as Borealis felt something surge from within him. A power, left dormant for far too long... And with it, a link that had once been best left forgotten like the burden that it truly was.   
  
Finally, consciousness slammed into his own body with such force that the Organoid threw its head back and shrieked - sounding almost vaguely human in the process. Simultaneously, every single blue panel on the creature's body lit up, as a similar colored energy lit up around him, forming into a circle at his feet.   
  
The scream was not his own. As it died down though, the link gained power and momentum...   
  
**_ I'm coming...   
  
_** In the same way he'd done so many months before, the checkered Organoid's head whipped down to point in the direction of a single person, seperated from him by almost a mile and more explosions, death and destruction than could be tallied. With that, boosters tucked away in the shoulderblades popped into view, and the death grip that had held him in place until now gave way.   
  
Borealis slipped down, gracefully falling into the air before catching himself as the blue glow shifted, covering every single inch of him and then...   
  
He bolted for it.   
  
Blue lightning shot over the edge of Gyran's ancient West wall, dropping down towards the ground at speeds that defied human comprehension. Before it ever hit dirt though, the bolt arced forward, almost into a right angle turn, skimming through burnt out streets and bypassing Sleepers and regular Zoids alike as if they weren't even there. Right by a Dark Horn, between the legs of a Daemon, through an ion field and over the body of a Molga freak, and just as the charged particle beam faded away, taking Hacksaw Squad with it, the bolt found its destination...   
  
Once there, it turned straight up and arced right back down, passing right into the back of the blue Command Wolf.   
  
In _that_ moment, in that very _instant_, it happened.   
  
Leyla Tsun stopped screaming, and started waking up.   
  


_End Chapter Nine_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Bgah. Sorry if this one is sub-par compared to what's been put out so far, but after a month or so of hacking at it with a battle axe, I _had_ to get this damn thing out, even if it may or may not lower people's expectations. I can't promise the next chapter will be much better, but I'm gonna try like Hell nonetheless.  
  
Oh, and death to Leyla Tsun, damnit.  
  
A painful, pointy, agonizing one at that.  
  
But kudos to Lars and company. _They_ actually wrote easily...  
  
And kudos also to Phelan, who beta read this sucker.  
  
Sh33p out. 


	10. The Longest Night

  
  
**Foreword:** Soundtrack is as follows:   
  
**Scene One:** Yu Yu Hakusho - Time of Battle  
**Scene Two:** Lord of the Rings - Requiem for a Dream(2:25 to the end)  
**Scene Three:**  
Rurouni Kenshin - The Duel  
Rurouni Kenshin - Crucify My Love(or Yu Yu Hakusho - Struggle of Sadness)  
Babylon 5 - Season 4 Titles(Instrumental)  
**Scene Four:** Linkin Park - Numb

* * *

** Tides of Darkness**  
The Longest Night  
  


Sleeper. Daemon. Monster.  
  
The creature that had had just singlehandedly annihilated Hacksaw Squad's surviving members went by all of these names, and many more that would likely never reach human ears. Only one designation really mattered right now though: _Target_.   
  
Even as the smoke and rubble blew away from what was left of the charged particle beam, time seemed to stand still for her. Her hands froze, locked shut around the Command Wolf's controls, fingers itching malignantly at the trigger. Her eyes didn't blink, and her pupils seemed to shrink to barely visible dots as the change took place. For the first time in years, her eyes became blue and stayed that way with little, if any chance of ever changing again. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, nostrils flared and deep within her gut, she could feel the beginnings of a growl as feral as any made by the Zoid she was piloting.   
  
And that wasn't all. The changes were as mental as they were physical, for even as the tears began to flow uncontrollably from her now predatory eyes, she could _feel_ the chemistry of her brain shifting. Areas that had long been dormant for her own safety awakened, and as they did, she could feel a bond with something just beyond her physical senses. As quickly as it intensified, so too did the abilities that were her birthright.   
  
**_Awaken._**   
  
Memories blocked out for the better part of a decade coalesced in one searing flash across her mind, only to be replaced effortlessly by the realities of the present.   
  
As the Daemon finally stepped into her direct sight, she could _feel_ the realization that it had made a terrible mistake by going for the group, as opposed to some other target. With the methodical precision of a ruthless predator though, she watched as it reared back briefly, only to lower back down and roar at her...   
  
"_Die_," she ordered, finally squeezing the triggers and feeling the Wolf skid back a few inches from the recoil.   
  
Instantly, a hyperspeed slug the size of a human arm crash down the barrel of the Daemon's charged particle cannon, followed by two equally fast rounds plummeting into the sides of its jaw. While the jaw itself simply issued a spray of sparks at both sides, the Zoid as a whole promptly stumbled backward and vomited out an explosion onto the ground, almost as if it had just started bleeding internally.   
  
A second later, the Wolf slowly began to lumber forward. No longer was it the same beast of burden that had been an all too poor choice of replacement for the Konig Wolf. Rather, it mirrored the lanky posture of a hungry alpha wolf about to gut an all too helpless rival for dominance over the pack. Illuminated and shadowed by the fires and the smoke they wrought, the blue Zoid stalked towards its prey...   
  
And with every step, she could almost _feel_ its internal systems rewiring. Armor hardened, a cage began to form over the cockpit from nothing and the Wolf's claws and teeth began to glow.   
  
"_Die_," she ordered again, squeezing the triggers at the same time and finding that only two guns fired.   
  
The difference was that both were virtually the same as the Wolf's original long range rifle, save that they hit the Daemon's leg armor and cratered it so violently that the heavy Sleeper let out a shriek more akin to a Raptor, even as it was still vomiting fire and smoke in almost every direction at once.   
  
Closer, the Wolf came, and harder, the Daemon began to stomp. Desperately, it flailed its hands around, sheering through an already mutilated lightpost and even going so far as to fire its charged particle gattling rifles - though nothing ever hit her Zoid at all. Instead, the pulses seemed to all crash viciously into the ground, into the rubble and debris, even into other Sleepers and regular Zoids - _anything_ but _her_. It was almost as if she was _forcing_ it to miss from the raw power of her hatred alone.   
  
But finally, the stalking gave way to a run, and the Daemon broke from whatever was influencing it. Whether it had been pain or some form of attack that she didn't even know she was capable of, the beast finally shrugged it off and attacked. With a swing of its right arm, it tried to lop the Command Wolf's head off, but by the time its claws had even come close enough to hit her, she was gone.   
  
Through the air, the Wolf went into a flip and twist so acrobatic that no human could've matched it even outside of a Zoid, its claws literally blurring gold streaks in its wake as the guns on its back fired. Each shot carried it a little higher and a little further behind the Daemon, until finally-   
  
She landed.   
  
The Command Wolf's legs didn't even have to bend to absorb the shock of it all. Explosions ripped belatedly across the Daemon's back, followed in turn by what looked like a glowing golden helix that ran from the top of the head to the base of the tail. When all was said and done, armored plates that should've had the endurance to withstand anything short of a charged particle beam literally blew off the Sleeper's back, flying through the air and crashing down in almost every direction.   
  
"**_DIE!_**" She finally screamed out, pulling both triggers once again...   
  
And watching as the Daemon's core took both shots and ruptured. Over the course of a few nanoseconds that felt like an eternity in their own right, she watched as the core briefly spewed out a silvery reddish energy distinctly recognizable as the Zoid's soul, only to have it sucked right back inward. After that, the Daemon crashed to its knees and what was left of its imploding core shattered into a beam of silver blue light that flooded its way straight up into the skies as brilliantly as a charged particle beam would have in its place.   
  
**_ One down,_** an all too patient pair of voices, neither of them like her own, advised.   
  
With that, Leyla Tsun remembered her mission, and with a feral growl, turned towards the nearest collection of Sleepers. The only goal she had was to kill or be killed.   
  
It was simply survival of the fittest. It didn't really matter how much she enjoyed it in the process...

* * *

"Berke: Guns on your left! Walter: Cover his rear! Kelly, Chris-" "On it," two voices interrupted at once as a pair of plasma bolts streaked by the Red Blade's cockpit, tagging into the already limping Aro Saurer and tearing off one of its chainsaws.   
  
"_Damn it_, Howard! _Keep low_!" He barked, bringing the Liger into a snapping turn and blindsiding one of its golden-glowing blades into the hip of a creature that bore an odd resemblance to a Dibison with even _more_ guns on it, larger horns and spikes running across the top of its head. The Sleeper bellowed and stumbled, completely thrown off by the attack as something closely resembling a Megalomax blast fired from the battery of cannons across its back.   
  
In front of him, Leon Tauros watched as the Taskers pounced another Sleeper - this one closer to a Saber Tiger with meaner guns, bigger teeth and a very _menacing_ paintjob - at full speed from opposite directions. Even though any ordinary Tiger he knew of would've been sheered in half, this one simply spun out of control violently and-   
  
Took a direct hit from the Gordos' Supercannons. The colossal rounds sheered right into its midsection, plowing through internal structuring and circuitry with such ferocity that they still managed to tear back out through the other side. An instant later, two gargantuan explosions sounded next to the spun-out Tiger and the creature shrieked. After that, Leon barely managed to catch himself from having his Zoid's feet trampled by the struggling, Megalomaxing Bison, still bellowing its obvious contempt for him and-   
  
The Liger roared.   
  
"I _know that_!" Leon shouted to it, pivoting his booster and powering it up to full blast right into the Bison's armor. Instantly, the Red Blade was pried loose and the freakish Dibison caught it in the side of a hip with one of its horns. Bits of armor flew everywhere, but he didn't even bother paying attention to the damage. Instead, the Blade Liger ducked down, causing the orange hellstorm of a Megalomax to pass right over its head and tear into the surrounding area.   
  
Somebody screamed, blue light flared at the edge of his perception and the Bison bellowed again as sparks flew from its neck, the result of the Aro Saurer's remaining chainsaw. At the same time, the limping Zoid had all but clung itself onto the huge Sleeper's shoulder with its arms and legs, teeth snapping viciously into the side of the firing battery of cannons on its back.   
  
"_Howard_!" Leon shouted, even as he was firing the right blade-blaster into the Bison's chest at almost point blank. "_Get away from there, damn it_!"   
  
"Not until this fat bitch _blee_-"   
  
Howard never finished the sentence. Even as the Bison's backpack was ripped open, cannons flipped out from its side on pivot mounts and came point blank with the side of the Aro Saurer's head. In an instant, the smaller Zoid's cockpit was blown into shrapnel and Howard, whether he'd had time to notice or not, was dead as a result. Whatever was left of him rained across the Blade Liger's back with the rest of the Saurer's head, just before the beaten little Zoid fell away with a sickening thud.   
  
"_Fuck_," Leon sputtered out in shock. A second later though, as the Megalomax finally ended, the shock went numb and cold, battle-ridden logic replaced it.   
  
Where Leon typically would've felt sickened at how callously he was throwing away an ally's death, Howard's demise didn't really sting him at all. He'd barely known the guy, after all...   
  
But that lack of feeling wasn't about to stop him from taking revenge for him.   
  
_ "Stupid fucking **bull**!"_ He thought to himself as he pulled the Liger's blades onto its back, then heaved the Zoid up while tilting them straight up. In an instant, the larger Bison was hurled back several steps, its head gashed open and one of its horns bent.   
  
Blades flipped out after that and the Red Liger heaved forward, snapping into an abrupt turnaround and coming right back in. An uncharged sword promptly sliced the Bison's nose off during the pass, leaving the creature angry and in pain...   
  
"_**BERKE! FIRE SUPPORT! NOW!**_" He ordered, having taken only a quick glance at the scanners to make certain that the Gordos pilot wasn't 'busy' before he'd interrupted.   
  
"Right," the other squad member replied bluntly. There was no panic or fear in his voice. Not even rage. Just raw professionalism.   
  
A few seconds later, as charged particle bolts slipped over the Blade Liger's back - one of them sheering off an ear - there was a loud crack of what sounded like thunder. Reacting on instinct, and with a hastily cobbled together plan that would've made Jamie proud, Leon whipped around again and flipped the blades back. As if reacting to his plan with a will of its own, the Liger's shield flared at the turn's end, and with that, Tauros charged blindly back.   
  
A second after that, there was a loud crunching sound. The Blade Liger slammed to a halt.   
  
When Leon opened his eyes, he saw that the Bison's cannon pack was spewing out smoke and fire, while its head was virtually imploded into its stubby neck.   
  
Dazed, pained and obviously losing its balance, the huge Zoid promptly fell over with a loud crash and a simultaneous shockwave of dust, dirt and ash.   
  
"Status report!" Leon barked out, dropping his shield and relying on his impact cannon to blow open the Zoid's head and plow through its structure while it was down. Howard was dead, he'd lost track of almost everyone but Berke and-   
  
"Alive," the Taskers replied to him, just as a series of chunky looking bolts of energy crashed into the downed Bison's stomach, followed by a hail of machine gun fire. Both Saixes practically trotted into view like conquering champions.   
  
"_Dealing_," Walter snapped a few seconds later. When Leon looked over, he saw that the Green Liger had been cut up all over its shoulders and mane, and currently had a Raptor pinned down by its slowly imploding head. The beam cannons on the Liger's back were out in the open, firing on some target that Tauros himself couldn't get a view of.   
  
"We lost Howard," Leon said. If it was a normal situation, he'd've felt sickened at how guiltless he sounded. "We need to regroup and go back on the offensive, _A.S.A.P._, got that?" He demanded more than anything else, just as someone's attacks finally plowed into the Bison's core and killed the damned thing where it still lay. For a few seconds, it flailed, then turned to stone as something vividly blue tore out of its side.   
  
"I'll be there as soon as I finish these stubborn _bastards_ off!" Walter replied, while Berke was bringing the Gordos into an about-face to bring its guns to bear.   
  
There was a crunching sound over the comm and the Shield Liger roared triumphantly-   
  
Just before another Raptor, this one smoking from a half a dozen beam-driven holes through its body, crashed into the things side.   
  
"**_GOD DAMNIT!_**" Walter shouted.   
  
Leon was already in action, and the Taskers were as well. Before the Shield Liger's side could be eviscerated, the Saixes had shot off the Raptor, and before it had landed, Leon had sheered its back open with one hellish claw strike.   
  
The Raptor landed on its back, tried to roll and the Red Blade replied by slamming a paw into its chest and leaning down to bite into its neck. Armor crumpled and ripped horrifically, and in a matter of violent seconds, the Blade Liger had decapitated the Raptor and thrown its head aside while crushing its core like a grape.   
  
"Keep it so that stuff like that _doesn't happen_," he ordered bluntly, glaring over at the other Liger.   
  
"_Down_," was Walter's response. Without even thinking, Leon complied, and as he did so, a massive, ape-like hand on a steel cable blew overhead. Like a missile, it slammed into the Shield Liger's mane, sending Walter screaming as the Zoid's guns fired aimlessly.   
  
Instantly, the Green Liger was ripped from its feet and flew right over its red ally, dragged through the air towards a creature that looked like a bigger, meaner, blood red Iron Kong with glowing chainsaws lining its chest and two gargantuan cannons on its shoulders. Not only that, but the freak had a gaping, vicious looking mouth, with violently blue eyes and razor blades coming out of its wrists.   
  
"**_DROP THAT FUCKER!_**" Leon screamed out, though his squad - what was probably about to be _left_ of it, anyway - were a step ahead of them. The Saixes and Gordos opened fire, with the sisters coming in for the bigger Zoid's flank as it reeled in the roaring, flailing Liger like a dying fish.   
  
Leon wasn't far behind by any stretch of the imagination, coming in with both blades lit up like Christmas trees.   
  
Unfortunately, the Kong wasn't going to be giving up that easily. Even as shots all but pinged off of its armor, the huge beast flung the Shield Liger around like a rag doll. In an instant, one of the Tasker sisters' Lightning Saixes took the full brunt of a swing and went flying out of control, leaving one of its legs behind at the point of impact. Before Kelly could even start screaming, Chris had slammed head-first into a pile of debris and driven out through the opposite side and-   
  
"**_SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!_**" Walter was screaming...   
  
Wincing inwardly this time, Leon ducked the Red Blade under the Kong's next swing and slashed it across the side, just before speaking.   
  
"_Kelly_!" He barked, causing the remaining Saix to juke erratically towards the left as it headed for Chris' debris pile. "_Try and get Walter_," he ordered.   
  
"**_WHY?!_**"   
  
"Because we don't even know if Chris is _alive_," he answered, finding it hard not to hate himself for it. Unlike Howard, he actually knew the Taskers well enough to like them.   
  
"**_SHE'S MY SISTER!_**"   
  
"And if she's alive, I'll save her."   
  
"**_YOU'RE JUST RUNNING AWAY!_**" She accused, not deviating from her course for an instant.   
  
"**_WHICH ZOID HAS A BACK SEAT?!_**" He responded bluntly.   
  
Kelly seemed to find enough logic in this to swing around and turn back towards the battle. Walter's screams were getting louder, and metal was crunching in the background and-   
  
"_Chris_! Can you hear me? Please respond!" Leon said, guiding the Blade Liger around the debris pile the long way as he did so.   
  
"I'm alive..."   
  
"Get out of your cockpit, step forward by about two meters and hold out one arm," he ordered, just as the cockpit flipped open from the Liger's own instincts. With that, the harsh stench of war hit his nostrils, while the even harsher wind from the speeds he was moving at slammed into the rest of him.   
  
The safety harness opened, his eyes squinted and he leaned forward, barely catching himself as the Red Blade came around the edge of the pile, just in time to see a slightly battered Chris Tasker holding up one arm as instructed. What was left of the Lightning Saix was strewn about the pile behind her.   
  
_ "Here goes everything,"_ he thought with a cynical sense of amusement as the Liger's head dipped down, one hand going to the rim of the cockpit as he jumped out and swung his feet onto the edge of its lower jaw. Hanging back as far as he could, his free hand went out half-blindly and-   
  
_"**OW!**"_ He bit back as scream as he managed to grab something with a distinctly human feel to it.   
  
It was a forearm. Belonging to a now-yelling, cursing, profanity spewing woman about his own age.   
  
Without even looking back at her as he dragged the Tasker sister through the air, Leon struggled back into the cockpit. A few seconds later, Chris had almost dislocated his shoulder by climbing up his arm to get to the edge of the cockpit, then climbed inside as well and settled into the back seat.   
  
"Who says movies are unrealistic?" She wheezed out with what sounded like a laugh, while Leon simply shook his numb arm and sputtered out a few curses of his own.   
  
With that, the Blade Liger rounded the opposite edge of the pile and came back towards the battle-   
  
"**_HELP M_**-"   
  
Just in time for Leon and Chris to see and hear the sound of the Shield Liger's head crushing in on its pilot and killing him in one of the worst ways possible. Blood squirted from between the Kong-thing's fingers as it swept the Liger straight up off the ground one last time, roared...   
  
And then brought it back down like a sledge hammer into the back and head of Kelly's Lightning Saix during a pass.   
  
Both Zoids tore away from the Kong, then simply tore _apart_ and went into a blurred roll into another debris pile. In their wake was nothing short of a sickening trail of disembodied limbs and structural components - along with several horrifying streaks of blood. Before Leon and his passenger could even react, the two Zoids had bounced up off the ground, seperated and crashed into an already burning building, which promptly collapsed and exploded into an even larger fireball than before.   
  
Leon felt his jaw drop. His eyes had become so wide that they almost hurt just to keep open, and even the hair on the back of his neck was standing on end.   
  
Chris was silent. If he looked back, he almost feared that she would lunge at him or drop dead of shock.   
  
For several seconds, the only noise was the Kong's incessant roaring, underscored by the sound of the Gordos' lesser arsenal opening up, followed by the Supercannons. And then...   
  
"K-Kelly..."   
  
Leon felt his face contort into a wince. He couldn't grieve himself, but that didn't mean it wasn't right at his doorstep.   
  
"_Kelly_!"   
  
"Strap in," he ordered, so numb at the emotional level that his arm seemingly forgot the physical numbness it had felt only seconds before.   
  
With that, hands found their way back onto the controls, and Leon's entire face seemed to tighten into a look of determination so raw that it would've sent men like Van Fleiheit crying home to their mothers in shame. Bitterly and with absolutely no regard for whether he showed it or not, he draw the joysticks back, to the sides and into several different positions as he spoke.   
  
"Transfer the shield energy, Liger..."   
  
Blades flipped forward, and the Red Blade Liger became engulfed in a bluish light during its approach.   
  
"Put it into the blades."   
  
Within seconds, the Kong turned to face its newest attacker, only to find that the Zoid was gone. All that remained was an irate corkscrew of raw vengeance, swirling toward it like something from the Inferno.   
  
The Kong threw one hand back, readying to try and punch the coming Liger and-   
  
"**_GAME OVER!_**"   
  
Both Zoids collided.

* * *

The last of the Raptors in her line of sight dropped like a bad, screaming habit as one of its legs gave out. Almost before it had even finished falling, she had managed to cycle herself through her weapons like a bird taking flight, attentions shifting over to one of the other triggers and pulling it on newly-honing instincts.   
  
Instantly, a solid white blur of plasma shot out from the Dark Horn's beam cannon, catching the Raptor in the side of its head as it hit the ground. The bolt tore through the Sleeper's head like it wasn't even there, leaving the thing blind and helpless as she closed in. A second later, she'd skewered its chest on her horn and violently cast it all away.   
  
With seconds to spare between attacks, Marry swiftly reached up and brushed a combination of hair and sweat out of her face, sighing deeply and trying to regain her bearings as she looked around. Adrenaline was pumping, her heart was racing to the point that her chest hurt and the increasing tunnel vision she was having to fight off didn't make it feel any better. It was like the walls were closing in around her from every direction, each one burning a little brighter than the one next to it...   
  
_ "Think," _she ordered herself with a tone of desperation. _"Can't go to pieces now... Not when I've come this far,"_ she reminded herself, using her free hand to rub sweat and what felt almost like tears out of her eyes-   
  
And that's when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as every single console in sight blazed with static. Before she'd even realized what was going on, the Dark Horn went flying up and back, flipping at least twice in a row before any of the screens popped back online. With that, the Horn crashed on its gut, causing Marry to come within inches of busting her head open on a console, even with the support of her safety harness.   
  
A second later, the main screen reactivated, only to reveal one of the many things she didn't want to see tonight.   
  
It stood as tall as a Geno Saurer, with spines across its back and a long, narrow jaw, colored a murderously dark green with equally lethal looking eyes. For a few seconds, the creature was bathed in what looked like a pulsing bubble of water, and then the field dropped as it began to step forward again with a lanky, menacing gait that made it appear as if it were some kind of god on the battlefield.   
  
"Damn you," she sputtered out, pulling the triggers and-   
  
Hearing absolutely nothing.   
  
Panic-stricken, Marry glanced down at the wireframe readout, only to find that the Dark Horn's back mounted weaponry - the mainstay of its arsenal - was gone. It had literally been ripped and blown off the back during the fall. All that was left was a piddly cannon on the chin and the guns on the tail.   
  
With a wince, she looked back up in time to catch what she could almost swear was a toothy grin from the Spiner. At that, the creature simply kept stalking forward, its guns held in reserve as a guttural sounding growl slipped from its mouth, sounding more like a laugh than anything else. Within seconds, she knew that it would arrive within the range of its jaws, and try to crush her cockpit. She didn't know _how_, she just _knew_...   
  
And she wasn't going to allow that to happen.   
  
Coaxing the battered Horn up off the ground once more, even as sparks hosed out of its leg stabilizers like there was no tomorrow, Marry waited. As the seconds ticked by to her impending execution, she felt her heart rate slowing to the point that she felt lightheaded, while her whole body seemed to want to go limp. Finally though, the Spiner made it to only a few yards away and-   
  
The Dark Horn charged forward with one last, furious bellow. The Spiner replied by dropping its footlocks and roaring right back, but as its ion field began to rise up from the ground, Marry caught it in the leg with her Crasher Horn. Armor buckled and structure bent as the shock carried into the knee and pushed the Spiner back, footlocks or not. The field still rose though, and this time, Marry was hurled straight up for what felt like an eternity of staring at static.   
  
Bracing herself in mid-air, Marry closed her eyes and waited.   
  
Momentum shifted and she heard the field cut off. The Horn started falling.   
  
Visuals returned as the Zoid came to within precious yards of the ground, only for her to open her eyes in time to see the Spiner's tail coming in and-   
  
Cockpit glass shattered to her right and Marry threw up both arms, feeling the cockpit itself cave in several inches in the process. With that, the Horn finally hit the ground spinning, skidding and rolling all at once until it came to a stop on its side, battered to the brink of a system freeze as the Dark Spiner turned to face it again...   
  
_ "Shit,"_ Marry thought, biting back on screaming as she reached up and yanked a glass shard out of her arm, only to _hear_ a gush of blood coming from the wound. Without even thinking of anything further, she slapped her palm tight against the opening and glanced at the screen only to find a hole where her Zoid's eye had been crushed in.   
  
Before the Spiner could ever finish closing in to attack though, three seperate barrages of gunfire from three different directions caught it off guard. While its armor was beyond giving in to the bullets, the Sleeper was still caught off guard almost entirely as three blindingly bright yellow Zaber Fangs came into view - one of them actually jumping right over the Dark Horn. All three were covered with battle damage and smoking badly in numerous places at once, but all three showed absolutely no regard for it.   
  
"_We'll handle this_!" A man's voice shouted over the comm, just as one of the Zabers jumped up over the Spiner's tail and caught it in the head with a claw swipe. The same Zaber landed, turned and booked it as the Sleeper began to open fire, only to be tackled by one of its legs by the same Fang that had just passed over Marry's head. The third joined the attack within a matter of seconds, pouncing onto the Spiner's back and tearing off several of the spines there in the process.   
  
With that, the remaining Zaber dove in and tackled the same leg as the one that had jumped over Marry mere seconds earlier, just as the Spiner tried dropping its footlocks. Only one went down. With that, the beast roared its defiance and-   
  
"**_HANG ON!_**" A second man screamed, just as the Zaber on the Spiner's back sank its teeth into the Sleeper's neck and tried to all but cling to it. The other two did almost the same thing to the Spiner's leg.   
  
All four of them promptly became nothing but indistinct blurs inside of a bubble-shaped ion field, even as the ground around the Sleeper began to crater. Limbs were snapping off, guns flying and somewhere along the line, Marry swore that she heard three different panels of glass being broken at once.   
  
"Omari, Lineback," the third and final member of the group began, his voice clouded by static. Even so, she could hear that he almost seemed to be crying. "It's been swell."   
  
A few seconds ticked by as she realized what was about to happen...   
  
"One more time..."   
  
"**_WE ARE TIGERS! TIGERS, ONE AND ALL! TIGERS TO THE END!!!_**" All three screamed at once.   
  
The bubble burst instantly and was replaced by three different balls of fire, promptly joined by a fourth as the three Zaber Fangs self-destructed. The pilots were gone instantly, leaving Marry's jaw to sag openly as she felt tears starting to pour. She had known none of them, but they'd given their lives to save her, whether they had known her or not.   
  
The explosions mixed, warping and expanding into nothing as what was left of the ion field died down, leaving four different streaks of light to go blazing up into the heavens, duelling even in death as they went.   
  
"... Why can't this night be over with?" She wondered aloud, unable to even hear her own voice over the background noise of the war still raging around her.   
  
Unfortunately, that same war refused to give her even a few moments to grieve.   
  
Within seconds of the blast, the Dark Horn shuddered and another alarm sounded from the console. There was a ripping sound, and Marry tried to bring her Zoid back up to its feet only to find that it had finally entered a full-on system freeze. A few moments later, all she could hear were the war cries of Raptors as chunks of the Dark Horn started flying everywhere, ranging from armor to limbs to internal structure...   
  
And then the cockpit was ripped open completely as the top of the frozen Horn's head was sheered off by a talon, with Marry only barely managing to duck its edge in the process.   
  
When she looked up, she saw only one thing: Death in the form of an ancient Raptor, backlit to the smoke from far too many funeral pyres to count.   
  
Its optics lit up, claws flexed and the Sleeper hissed down at her as it drew one hand back and-   
  
Marry screamed again as the Raptor vanished in a blur of reddish light, managing only a shortlived shriek as something crashed into it from the side. Simultaneously though, Marry and the remaining Raptors stopped what it was that they were doing in time to see the other Sleeper fly back into a wall, its hip, shoulder and side imploded to the point that it was almost bent at a right angle towards its attacker. With that, the Zoid-sized red bullet whipped around and what must've been some sort of shield dropped-   
  
And revealed her would-be savior to be the same black Shield Liger that she had seen so many hours before, now standing tall and vicious in the warzone that had almost claimed her life a dozen times in one night.   
  
Like some kind of irate god, the Zoid roared, its voice alone rattling Marry to the core almost as badly as the Raptors themselves had. Slowly though, that roar died down to a feral growl, and the Shield Liger began to stalk forward as it did so. With the fluid grace of a predatory beast, it closed in on the Raptors, and as Marry undid her harness to try and get out of the cockpit, she could just barely catch a glimpse of all four or five of her remaining attackers cowering back with every step...

* * *

The War Room. A place of command, sheltered so deeply within Gyran's reinforced walls that nothing short of a sustained hit from a charged particle cannon was going to be able to take it out. It was supposed to be a place where the command staff of the Champton Defense Forces were able to coordinate a defensive without fear of being killed in five seconds. It was supposed to be relatively calm compared to the actual battle going on outside.   
  
"We just lost another squad on the Southern wall!"   
  
Right now, it wasn't.   
  
"Try and get reinforcements there," Harry Champ ordered, his feet throbbing and his hands clenched into fists so tight that it was a wonder his palms weren't bleeding right now.   
  
For the past hours, he had been pacing around the War Room like a man possessed, spouting off orders, helping to set up the few _real_ coordinated movements of the battle and pulling damage control at almost every turn. It was all happening so fast that his concept of time had started to slip away, and while he fought to avoid tunnel vision and the rampant urge to throw in the towel and find a gun with one bullet in it, it seemed like almost everyone was relying on him to keep them anchored.   
  
It was maddening, really. In some detached sort of way, he almost wanted to wonder why he hadn't lost his mind yet.   
  
"We haven't got anyone that can reach it in time!" The officer in charge of monitoring the South wall replied in a panic.   
  
"Then tell every available artillery Zoid we've got to aim a few dozen meters outside of the South wall," he ordered almost automatically, his course abruptly shifting towards the right as he weaved through a half a dozen different men and women who were rushing around frantically trying to keep tabs on everything. "And while you're at it; patch me through to Leon Tauros."   
  
For a few seconds, all he could hear from the officer was a sputtering string of orders across every single frequency designated for the Southern region of the defensive. After that, the officer paused a second, took a deep breath and opened up another channel. It was the one that Harry had specifically designated as Leon's own.   
  
"_What_?" Bit out from the comm as the screen fuzzed into view, revealing a rather angry looking Tauros and a shellshocked woman sitting behind him in the Liger's back seat. Harry recognized her as the older Tasker sister.   
  
"You're needed on the South wall," Harry stated bluntly, pushing the officer out of the way as he did so. "There are-"   
  
"_Almost everyone on my squad is dead or incapacitated_," Leon spat out as the Blade Liger's cockpit seemed to rattle from something or other.   
  
"_What_?" Harry blurted right back.   
  
"I'm not _repeating myself_!" Leon shouted back, ducking low and yanking back on the joysticks, then shoving them forward in the same second. "Now if you'll _excuse me_..."   
  
"Understood," Harry replied after a few seconds of staring at the screen, just before the officer shut the channel off.   
  
A second later, Harry had straightened up and turned away, only to find himself struggling to keep his balance on a suddenly shaking floor as an explosion sounded from behind him. It wasn't close though. It wasn't even in the War Room. Something had literally gone off with enough force to reverberate _through the entire fortress_.   
  
Without even though, he whipped around again, bracing himself with one hand on a nearby chair.   
  
"What the hell was that?!"   
  
"Something just fragged the wall!" The South monitor shouted right back in a frenzy.   
  
"_Shit_," Harry heard himself say, looking around again as if to find someone who had any clue as to what he should do.   
  
Nobody even noticed him. Several people were scraping themselves off the floors, Sarah was going around barking orders even faster than he had, and-   
  
_ Sarah.   
  
_ "_**SARAH!**_" He screamed out over the hustling noise of people talking to each other so quickly that it was a wonder any of them understood anything at all. For a split second, the taller woman in the blue jumpsuit didn't even notice him either, only to whip around like a whirlwind and shoot him a look that could've competed with Leena's own glares. By then though, Harry had already run across the room and come within an arm's reach of her.   
  
"What is it?" She demanded impatiently.   
  
"I need you to cover for me," he found himself answering as if it were the single most natural thing in the world.   
  
"_Cover for you_?" Sarah growled. "You're running away?"   
  
Everything in the entire room froze. Instantly.   
  
"**_I'M A PILOT, FOR GOD'S SAKE!_**" Harry blurted out so loudly that the veins in his neck stood out.   
  
"You can't go out there!" She shot off.   
  
"If I don't try, then who will?" Harry answered bluntly. "Just _cover for me_," he ordered, only to turn away and take off for the nearest exit before she could say anything else.   
  
A second later, the door may as well have not even opened considering how tightly he had squeezed himself through it, only to find himself face to face with two rows of more civilians than he could've ever counted, lining the walls right up to the exit. Men, women and children alike, all of them dressed in the clothes they'd been wearing when they'd been evacuated into the fortress.   
  
It took only a single moment, but by the time he had straightened up from squeezing out of the War Room doors, every last one of them had turned to look at him. There wasn't a shred of judgement in any of their eyes.   
  
"... I'm going to fight. _I'm going to save you_."   
  
For a few seconds, he just stood there...   
  
_ "... Even if I die doing it."   
  
_ Without even stopping to think after that, Harry Champ took off running again, and never looked back...   
  


_End Chapter Ten_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Now _THIS_ was an easy-as-hell chapter to write...  
  
Major kudos to Harry Champ for blindsiding me with the final scene o.o  
  
And a sincere R.I.P. goes to the Fuzzy Pandas. They gave me the idea for their own deaths when I first reintroduced them into TOD. The guys are so neglected that I just couldnt _help_ but give them what they wanted. Hopefully, it went off without a hitch. And if anyone's keeping tabs on the death count, it's at around 14 or 15 named characters by now. Not bad for only two chapters of fighting, if I do say so myself... And I do >.>;  
  
Review commentary is also updated. Enjoy.  
  
Sh33p out. 


	11. The Fall of Night

**Foreword:** Soundtrack below.

**Scene One:** Papa Roach - Last Resort   
**Scene Two:** Linkin Park - Numb   
**Scene Three:** Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Beethoven's Fifth Symphony   
**Scene Four:** Trans-Siberian Orchesta - Beethoven's Last   
**Scene Five:** Rammstein - Du Hast   
**Scene Six:** Zoids - Zoid Eve's Theme   
**Scene Seven:** Zoids - Any End of the Land   
**Scene Eight:** Rurouni Kenshin - Fallen Grey Angel

* * *

**Tides of Darkness   
**The Fall of Night

* * *

Colorblindness was threatening to set in as four quick shots rang through the air, each one deafening in its fury. Almost as if in unison, four of the freakish Molgas became little more than clouds of shrapnel spewing out of orange and red fireballs visible against even the background hellstorm that the fighting still raged in. Without even pausing long enough to register what she had just done though, it seemed as if her very thoughts goaded the mutant Command Wolf into skidding to a sideways halt and snapping its head to the right at the same time that its guns were brought to bear in that direction. 

A Raptor, airborn in mid-jump, screeched at her.

A trigger pull later, what was left of it rained harmlessly across the blue Wolf's side. The paint wasn't even scratched.

_**Left**_, a pair of voices alerted. In an instant she had followed the warning and jerked the Wolf to the left, ducking at the same time and bringing her guns around as another of the Molgas came in for a ram attempt.

Instead of crashing into her though, its head was sheered off by a glowing golden claw, swiping up even as she rolled the Command Wolf over onto its back, then the right side and straight up to its feet once again.

Triggers pulled back, guns fired and the blue mutant freakshow howled as something resembling a Konig Wolf with saber teeth and an oversized beam rifle on its back stormed into view. Before it had even noticed her, twin bolts of bluish-golden light crashed into its side at hypersonic speeds. Quicker still, the other Wolf had fallen over with a pair of gaping holes at the points of impact, and as it struggled to get back up-

Her claws plunged into the open wounds and punched straight out of the other side, stopping only when they hit the concrete and asphalt that made up the street they were fighting on.

In an instant, the fallen Konig freak was dead. Its movements ceased and its body began to stone over, but by then, she was already searching around for her next target...

It was all happening so fast, but so slow at the same time. She could feel everything as if through some long buried set of senses, and every one of them were as detached from her actual body as they were infused into the very fabric of her mind. In a single second, she felt unbridled joy and incomprehensible rage at the same time. In one second, she was sobbing her eyes out, while at the same time she was laughing to the brink of hyperventillating.

Yet in the midst of it all were two anchoring presences that she couldn't hope to ignore in favor of this new world of sensations. One was literally clinging to her mind, feeding into it and drawing from it in return, and the other?

The other _was_ her mind.

And somewhere in this myriad of chaotic feelings and emotions, these two anchors brought clarity. The clarity that kept her focused in spite of it all, and the clarity-

That allowed her to duck under a mach one switchblade with crucial inches to spare, only to bring the dual beam rifles to bear and shoot down the offending Bladeler before it had even started to swoop up from its pass. Shards of its broken wings rained down into a nearby fire, and the creature itself crashed violently a few seconds later, but by then, she had switched gears again.

The Command Wolf's feet snapped free of the dead Konig freak's stoned corpse, and almost instantly, it was running again. The world became a tunnel and a blur at once, yet her objective remained clear. Up ahead, she could see it: A creature twice the size of almost any other Zoid on the battlefield. It walked with four legs, lashing a sturdy spike-tipped tail in its wake and extending a pair of thick saw-jointed wings out to either side. Its neck was thick, sturdy and powerful, with a dragon's head that bore a pair of devilish horns atop it. It moved unchallenged through a blistering but inaccurate rain of artillery from almost every direction, headed for-

A hole in the South wall...

If she were in any sort of clear state of mind, Leyla Tsun would've likely wondered exactly how it was that she had even ended up in the South sector. Right now though, only her objective mattered.

And that objective wasn't to defend Champton. Not anymore.

It was to _kill every Sleeper_ that she could _find_.

Without even a battle cry to herald her attack, Leyla guided the Command Wolf into a full-speed run for the Gyl Vader, claws and teeth alike lighting up like fireworks as she closed in...

* * *

Lights flickered on and off in almost every direction as he raced through hallways so old that his grandfather hadn't even been in diapers when they were created. His feet were throbbing to the point that it felt like a bone was breaking with every step, and his legs were pumping so quickly that the veins in his thighs felt like they might explode at any second. He was breathing so hard that every gasp for air felt as if it might be his last, and almost with every single stride he took, it felt as if the whole world was rattling from some as yet unseen threat. 

Harder and harder though, he kept pushing himself. Even as blood began to leak from his palms due to how tight his hands were curled up, he kept pushing himself.

It felt as if the weight of the world was pressed down on his back, and even though it threatened to paralyze him everytime he actually thought about it, he kept going.

She had asked him if he was running away. To an extent, now that he was actually alone, and now that he was free to face his doubts, he actually realized that he _was_ running away.

He was fleeing the position of King in favor of that of a lowly Knight, and with a bitter sense of amusement, he knew that he wouldn't have it any other way.

Skidding to a halt at long last though, he arrived to a door and almost crashed right into it. While sweat poured down his face, Harry Champ grabbed the knob and twisted it to the point that his wrist started throbbing. After that, he had almost broken the thing off of its hinges while shoving it open-

And then he was there.

Standing inside of the Champ Family Hangar.

The lights had almost entirely flickered out, and it was obvious that as power was being shifted to more and more increasingly vital systems, the hangars were rapidly losing importance. Even more so since there were so few defenders left compared to how many had started out and-

_"Can't think about that now,"_ he thought to himself with a huff, head snapping up as he heard something screeching outside. _"Something's already gotten past the defenses... No time to waste." _

Without even bothering to catch his breath, Harry swung about on one foot and took off running. The pink Iron Kong - the Prozen Knight, as it was jokingly referred to - stood in a corner, untouched by anyone, or anything. Benjamin and Sebastian's Kongs were out in the field somewhere, but there hadn't been anyone with the actual skill to handle Harry's own.

Within seconds, he had reached a ladder to the catwalk above, all but hurling himself onto its rungs as he began to scramble up each one. Every new hold made his hands feel a bit more slippery with his own sweat and blood, and every new lift of his legs made them feel a bit more wobbly. By the time he had finished climbing up to the catwalk, he almost felt as if he would pass out.

And he almost _did_ when the hangar's superbly armored door tore apart and imploded like some kind of freakish tin can. The atmosphere in the hangar itself seemed to become thin, and even as he fought to stand up from his hands and knees, he could feel something pulling him towards the door. Rivots snapped loose, several bars tore from the safety rail and as Harry looked towards the source of it all, he could see a miniature sphere of energy, shifting through every single color of the rainbow for a few seconds...

Then it stopped. All that was left was a chunky looking ball of black alloy, crashing down to the ground and plunging several feet into steel-reinforced concrete before it stopped.

"... That was a fucking _gravity cannon_!" He blurted out, only to watch a large blue blur flying through the open hangar doorway and crash into a wall with such force that the whole structure trembled. A shockwave passed through the wall itself, knocking away almost a tenth of an inch worth of paint and causing a vaguely canine-shaped imprint at its center, while several of the catwalk's supports snapped loose from the ceiling.

Within seconds, Harry found himself fighting for his grip as the whole damned thing fell half-over and hung by nothing but its left side. One hand clinging to the rail above him and both feet balanced to the bar below were all that kept him from falling to his death as something began to stalk towards the hangar. He could see it as only a shadow at first, standing out in the orange glow of the countless fires raging across the city-

And then the freakish looking Command Wolf that had just been hurled into the hangar began to stand up. Its bent and half-imploded legs literally popped back to normal with a loud sound that Harry could only describe as the crunching of aluminum, and as that happened, the smaller Zoid shook its head as if in a daze.

Before anything else could be seen though, his promise returned in-mind. With that, Harry threw his free hand up and gripped another bar, wincing as he finally realized that he'd actually cut his palms with his fingernails. Gritting his teeth though, he began to stagger forward, one right bar per foot, one left bar per hand. Every step was a challenge, backlit to the noise of a violent skirmish playing out just yards below him, and on almost three different occasions, he came within tenths of an inch of slipping.

Finally though, it came to the worst as the Wolf tried something and the monster it was battling literally headbutted it right up into the ceiling. Scaffolding nearby imploded, the roof shook and numerous remaining supports for the catwalk gave out.

His heart skipped four beats in a row as Harry felt the bars giving out from under him. Within an instant, he went from standing in mid-step to dangling for his life from a now only quarter-hanging catwalk, which itself was slanted towards the ground below.

"_Fuck_!" Harry blurted out, his left hand clinging to the same bar he'd been trying to hold onto earlier, while his right flailed around with his legs in a frantic, futile bid to find something to hold onto-

Which was when he noticed that the catwalk was grated.

Without even stopping to think, his right hand dug its fingers into the catwalks holes, and inch by inch, Harry began to climb his way up towards a part of the structure that _wasn't_ dangling by a thread.

He had almost succeeded when a fluke shot burned right through the air around him, vaporizing part of the scaffolding and causing the back of his jumpsuit to catch fire. An instant later, it had slammed into the hangar ceiling and detonated, leaving Harry's section of the catwalk to rattle and swing and-

And Harry screamed with pain as the flames began to lick at his skin through the jumpsuit. Without even bothering to consider a plan of action, and with no more fear left in him, the man who had been destined to be King threw himself forward. His feet slammed into one of the remaining bars, his fingers raked across the grates and with a desperate heave, Harry Champ found himself slamming across the level remaining portion of the catwalk, while the rest of it caved in behind him.

But the back of his jumpsuit was starting to catch fire.

"**_VOICE COMMAND OVERRIDE!_**" He shouted, uncertain as to whether or not it would work, and not even caring if it did or didn't. Even as he was speaking, he was slinging himself to his feet with the kind of energy given only to the terrified and dying. "**_COCKPIT OPEN!_**"

There was the sound of hydraulics gasping as the Iron Kong's head split open, and by then, Harry had started running.

Even as the back of his jumpsuit finally began to give way, Harry threw all caution to the wind and hurled one of his feet up onto the railing. With one last, desperate push, that single leg sent him flying into the air, twisting blindly as he went and-

Crashed all of a second and a half later in the Iron Kong's cockpit, his body all but crashing into the pilot's chair so hard that he felt his spine threatening to jar in six different places. At the same time, Harry had to bite back an agonized scream as the fire on his back was snuffed out against the leather of the seat, baring his teeth to the ceiling and blindly slapping the button to shut the cockpit back up.

The flames were snuffed out though, and even as the pain threatened to make him cry, Harry reached up with one hand and yanked the safety harness down.

With that, the cockpit slid shut and the lights flipped on, leaving every single console to activate in unison as the forward HUD kicked on. As it finished activating, he was confronted with the view of some kind of winged dragon having its right wing sheered off by that insane Command Wolf from before, only to smack the smaller Zoid away and gut it in the same motion with its tail.

Wheezing and feeling on the verge of passing out in shock from pain and exhaustion, Harry Champ brought his hands to the controls and screamed.

* * *

It happened in almost slow motion as what was left of the freak-Kong's body fell through the foul air of the battlefield, only to land several seconds later with a loud thud. A severed arm, the head and a leg. It was all that he was going to even allow to continue existing, but by the time his foe had died off, Leon Tauros had found new targets. God only knew there was an endless supply of them. 

Shifting numbly about in his seat as if he could somehow coax the Zoid with nothing but his own weight, he guided the Red Blade into a half-turn at full speed, plowing it straight through a pile of debris and crashing into the right side of a group of Raptors. By the end of the pass through their ranks, almost half of them were dead or maimed, and those that remained were caught so off-guard by the attack that they could do little more than stare in awe as their brethren fell by the truck load.

Without even waiting to see the results though, Leon had whipped the Liger back around. Wordlessly, he adjusted for the sparse movements of the few Raptors still in back of the group, then charged forward again. By the end of the next three seconds, another half a dozen souls were freed from their Cores and sent spiraling into the star lit night sky. Even so, alarms were screaming on all sides of the cockpit, and his passenger was starting to gain some spirit as she began to pound at the back of his seat.

Yet all that he could allow himself to focus on was the vicious golden glow that surrounded the Blade Liger. Its shield was whipping about like some kind of insanely large power drill, and beneath it, bolts of lightning were sparking about from blades to extended shield panels and almost anything in between. It was the same technique he had once tried to use in order to defeat the Liger Zero Schneider, and right now, it was the only thing keeping him alive.

A sideways glance and he had spotted his next target, even as Berke's Supercannons thundered in the background and something shrieked nearby. With that though, Leon Tauros brought the Liger into another full-speed run, headed for a currently unsuspecting Daemon, its guns trained on another target all together. Even as the Gojulas it was trading shots with howled its death cry, Leon crashed right into the Daemon's right leg, causing the damaged armor to all but evaporate on impact.

Less than a second later, the actual structure followed suit. After that, as the Liger started to swing wildly into another snapping turn, the side of its drilling-shield rolled into the back of the Daemon's left leg, even as it started to fall. It took almost the exact same amount of time, but the remaining leg vanished in the same way as its missing counterpart, while the falling Sleeper was split in half cleanly before it ever hit the ground. From the base of its tail to its midsection, the creature literally ceased to exist, leaving a vicious red light to spray into the Liger's drill-shield and fly away in every direction at once.

"_Get back here_!" Berke's voice finally rang over the comm. "I can't cover you if I can't _see_ you!"

"_I'm_ in command here," Leon replied sharply, even as another alarm sounded and felt like it would almost blow out his ear drums.

"Then _what_ are your _orders_?" Berke demanded. It was obvious that stress was starting to take its toll on everyone, leaving no exceptions and plenty of soon-to-be-grey hairs in its wake... Not to mention just as many dead bodies.

What should have been natural wasn't. At once, even as he began to push the Red Blade forward, Leon Tauros found himself confronted with a beast that was as menacing as the hundreds of bloodthirsty Sleepers running rampant all over the remains of Champton: Indecision. In this position, everything he knew of history said that his boyhood hero, the man that everyone seemed to compare him to, would have sent this last soldier running for his life while fighting to safeguard his retreat. At this point, Berke was only in his way. He had a limited amount of time to use this form of the force shield and couldn't be bothered to protect a slow-moving Gordos while doing it...

But there was nowhere the other pilot could run.

After a few moments, Leon came up with the only answer that made any sense, even if it was a suicide order in everything but name.

"Inflict _damage_, soldier. Don't worry about anything else."

"It was an honor serving under you, Tauros," Berke replied.

Before Leon could say anything back, the comm clicked off and something exploded in the distance. With a wince, he did what he could to ignore it.

It was in these last few seconds that Leon Tauros realized that all the comparisons were wrong.

Van Fleiheit had been a man possessed of honor and duty. At this point, Leon was a man possessed of duty and honor. Where Van had fought as a lone warrior for justice and freedom, Leon was fighting purely for the survival of others. He had no greater calling, and there wasn't any philosophy in it. All of his talk of potential washed away in less time than it took to flush a toilet, and when it was gone...

He didn't even wonder why he had ever tried following in Fleiheit's footsteps in the first place.

With renewed vigor fuelled purely by desperation, his shoulders hunched forward and his mouth opened in a gaping scream as wild as that of any beast he had ever heard, echoed in part by the very Liger that he was piloting. He never even realized that he was crying as he did it.

* * *

The Command Wolf flew by and loose bits rained in its wake as a gigantic hardened alloy fist crashed into the side of the dragon creature's head. Cockpit glass cracked against the blow and the Sleeper shrieked in a mixture of rage and pain, while Harry Champ slammed the same fist down into the hangar floor and squeezed a trigger. In an instant, an armored panel on the Kong's left shoulder flipped open and a hail of rockets spilled out into the air, covering the Vader's head in flame and smoke before it could try to mount a counter attack. 

The left wing, and what was left of the right, flapped indignantly as the huge beast staggered sideways, its head dipping out of the smoke as the rocket launcher slapped shut again. A second later, Harry threw his body to the left, dragging the Kong's right arm in his wake and slapping the Vader across the nose while grappling on in the same motion.

"_**COME ON!**_" Harry screamed again, heaving the Iron Kong back to the right and socking the Sleeper across the head with another left hook in the process. Bits of armor flew off the beast's head as it struggled, only to have the guns on its neck open fire. In an instant, an entire hangar wall became a foot thinner, leaving the whole place to rattle-

And then the Command Wolf appeared out of nowhere. With agility that went beyond supernatural, it leapt onto the Kong's shoulder and then right off it, the guns on its back pivoted to face the Vader's backpack. Two shots later, the Wolf was barrel rolling onto a wall, landing on all fours upside down only to spring off again and crash-tackle itself onto the Sleeper's neck, claws and teeth glowing and slashing for all they were worth.

Yet even as it was being all but overwhelmed, the beast refused to quit. With one vicious heave of its own, it broke the Kong's grip and stormed into a turn, clotheslining the Wolf with its remaining wing in the process. The pilot, whoever it was, came within feet of having the head severed or the cockpit sliced apart by a buzzsaw blade.

The Prozen Knight staggered away, and Harry kicked on the thruster pack on its back in order to stabilize himself, only to charge forward a second later. The shoulder cannon fired and the ensuing bolt of energy seared into the Vader's chest with the sound of rattling tin foil before the two Zoids were at melee range again and-

_Crack_!

Horns crashed into the Kong's chest, the Vader threw its head back with a war cry and Harry went flying right over his target. Several times in mid-air, he flipped forward, only to finally crash down on his Zoid's rear end and roll onto both fists to a stand, then skid to the very edge of the hangar.

Without even batting an eye at something that would've once left him on the verge of throwing up, Harry whipped the Kong to its left and brought the wrist cannons to bear. Thin beams of light sliced a shallow pair of trails into the Vader's backpack an instant later, drawing the huge Zoid's attention even as it swatted the Command Wolf away with its tail.

"**_COME GET ME!_**" Harry challenged vehemently.

A second later, the Kong was grabbing the Vader by its horns and struggling to avoid being pushed back, only for both Zoids to be pushed all the way out of the hangar and into full view of everything in the fortress-

Which was when a small blur leapt down out of nowhere and landed almost flawlessly on the Vader's back. Before Harry could even realize it, talons had slammed into place on hardened alloy and a rifle extended completely before-

Shots rang out. An instant later, the Gil Vader had gained a hole in the back of its neck. Another moment ticked by as its remaining wing flapped straight up and smacked the insane seeming Gun Sniper right off of its back, while the guns on its neck opened fire completely.

Damage alarms screeched, Harry kicked on the thrusters and the Kong jumped. With speed and a clumsy sort of agility that it simply shouldn't have been capable of, the huge pink Zoid flipped over the Vader and tried to rip its horns off. Unfortunately for Harry though...

"**_SHIT!!!_**"

It didn't work out that way.

Rather than lose its horns, the Vader simply clamped its massive claws down into the asphalt and heaved its head forward, literally dragging the flipped Kong back down through the air and slamming it down onto its smoking, heavily damaged chest. Harry sputtered out a string of curses in the process, barely getting his right arm positioned in time to avoid having its cannon ripped off during the fall.

And that was when the Command Wolf, seemingly undamaged, leapt back into the frey _again_. With a canine agility that Harry's Kong couldn't even dream of, the blue thing all but flew through the air and plunged one of its claws into the back of the Vader's head and-

Harry didn't even wait to see the final results of the attack. Instead, he found two triggers and pulled them. Instantly, the Kong's heavy-duty ballistic missiles fired, only to crash into the Vader's collar and detonate less than three meters from his own Zoid's head.

The world turned white, and Harry Champ couldn't even hear himself screaming.

* * *

Lights were flashing all over every console, his ears were starting to hurt and the Red Blade was roaring indignation and pain with every stride it took. A second later though, the sounds of its fury were replaced with the sounds of metal making contact with rapidly flowing energy, then giving way almost instantly. It was almost as if he could _hear_ the bonds between individual particles being torn apart, sending metallic vapor flying in every direction while a newly dead Raptor's soul flew apart in a similar fashion, spraying into the ground and air alike. Wherever it landed, the dirt, asphalt and battered concrete rotted and collapsed by several inches, but by the time it was over, Leon had drawn one hand up from the controls. 

With a pace most men couldn't even dream of, he worked the consoles using only one hand, piloting with the other and somehow splitting attention between both as flawlessly as a diamond in the rough. Even as irritation forged its way down his cheeks, his eyes itching and his jaw starting to throb in kind, he had used that one freed hand to divert what little extra power the Liger still had to the task before him. The booster shut out and the shield generators were starting to overload, but without even paying them any mind, he all but danced his fingers across a dozen different buttons and switches, all in different parts of the cockpit and every one so easy to miss that a rookie pilot would've had trouble pulling it off even outside of this situation.

Stabilizers churned, and the stress inflicted on the blades was starting to become apparent by the time that the Liger started moving again, easing back up to its full speed and erasing the front half of a Molga from the face of the planet while doing it.

Yet all the while, with every single breath he took, the wall of numbed focus he had managed to keep in place began to crumble a bit more. Chris Tasker was still in the back seat, and she was still ranting about how they should've gone back to find her sister and...

And piece by piece, Leon felt the weight of the world coming down on his shoulders.

Tunnel vision barely persisted though, and as the Red Blade turned to the side, he could see his next target: A Konig freak.

With speed that most Zoids could only dream of, the Blade Liger surved forward, and Leon felt himself sink back into the seat a bit as the distance closed. Within a second, the Konig had noticed their approach. Within two seconds, it had brought its arsenal to bear. By the third second though, the drilling shield made contact and, in an instant, the Konig all but evaporated. First went the head, then the neck, shoulders and chest. Through it all though, Leon was given a point blank view of a Sleeper's insides, watching with a mix of dread, satisfaction and disgust as the Core came into view and promptly ruptured.

Seconds later, the Blade Liger swung about into a stop as a second Konig leapt into view, its guns blazing as an ear-splitting howl raked through the air-

And then the shield cut out.

Leon bit back a shout as both shield projectors literally blew off of their hinges, reduced to molten shrapnel as a result. Steam and smoke vomited from the top and bottom of the Liger's mane, and the cockpit quickly began to heat up as both blades, already taxed beyond their limits with maintaining the attack for so long, shattered from their tips to the base of each support pylon. Molten alloy rained to the ground as several small explosions tore through the Red Blade's insides, echoed in turn by the blasts from the Konig's beam rifle.

Stumbling forward with a defiant roar of its own, the Liger struggled just to stand. Sparks were spraying out of its leg stabilizers and its mouth was smoking, but the Red Liger just kept going.

The Konig landed on all fours in the middle of a second leap, having turned itself to face Leon in mid-jump as it again brought the rifle to bear-

And took a close range blast to the face from both of the Dual Impact Cannon's barrels. Leon grimaced, squeezing the trigger again while the Konig staggered from the first blow. Nanoseconds later, two more explosions rang out from one of its shoulders, signs that he'd shot it again.

_"No blades, no shield, no problem,"_ he managed to half-think with something vaguely akin to a fatalistic smirk. "_Let's go, partner_!" He shouted, urging the smoking, battle-scarred Liger forward for what felt like the last time. Chris was screaming in the back seat, explosions were sounding everywhere and the Konig was still trying to recover from his surprise attack.

With a desperate leap, the Blade Liger all but belly-flopped onto the Konig freak's back, slamming into its rifle with both front paws and causing the Sleeper to falter onto its side. Rather than stay down though, the beast simply rolled with the crash, flinging the Red Blade right over and into a flip. In an instant, Chris stopped being the only one screaming as the already battered Zoid skidded to a hard stop on its back, with its booster keelhauled right off in the process.

With that, the Konig stood up, took aim and growled.

Before he could even calm down enough to feel shock, it was all over.

* * *

For a time, all he could hear was his own ragged breathing, underscored by the occasional groan. Virtually all of the cockpit glass was gone, and the cockpit itself seemed almost as if it had imploded _and_ evaporated in the same instant. His ears were throbbing, he was bleeding in a dozen places and his head felt like it would collapse in a matter of seconds, but as his vision started to clear enough that he could see just how intact he was, Harry Champ couldn't help but chuckle with a certain battle-driven dementia to it. 

He had just detonated the equivelent to a miniature nuclear bomb less than ten feet from where he'd been standing and yet he hadn't even lost a finger or toe. He wasn't permanently blinded and he could even hear things with relative clarity, though there was still a loud ringing in his ears.

With that though, Harry pulled a bloody, slightly charred hand up to his safety harness and undid it, only to flop down by about half an inch and come to the rather expectable conclusion that not only had the cockpit gotten a _whole_ lot smaller, one of his legs had also been completely broken.

_"Almost humiliated, set on fire, shot repeatedly and blown up all in one night..." _

There was a pause.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think this was a date with Leena," he laughed out raggedly, only to reach out with both hands and slowly yank himself up out of the cockpit through the top of the undoubtedly slagged Iron Kong's head.

He landed as if his body had become a wet noodle, slipping down several inches into ash and dust covered concrete and rebarring. For a few seconds, his eyes remained sealed shut and his breathing was composed of little more than gasps for air, but soon enough, Harry finally took a look around...

And let out an even louder laugh than before.

The firestorm caused by the Prozen Knight's kamikaze manuever had reduced the area to a smoking, brutalized looking crater for almost a hundred yards in every direction. Where there once was asphalt, painted lines and designation lights, now there was only a shallow, burnt out depression, along with the scorched and damaged sides of buildings in almost every direction.

"That was fucking _crazy_," he commented to himself, all humor literally washing away as he looked around for the other Zoids that had tried to fight, along with the Sleeper that all of them had gone up against.

The Gun Sniper stood nearby, charred almost ash-black all over and barely standing, and further away than that stood the mutant Command Wolf. Its entire body was glowing a neon blue as structure and armor alike repaired themselves, literally growing back into place.

With that, Harry looked back in front of him, only to find that the Sleeper just wasn't there anymore. There were lengthy tracks in the crater's floor, leading from several yards in front of him to what was left of the former Champ Family Hangar, now completely collapsed aside from a few broken looking support beams. All that was left seemed to be a massive pile of rubble, and most of it was completely scorched as well. If the Sleeper was entombed beneath it all, Harry couldn't see.

He also didn't care. As long as the thing was _dead_, he was fine.

Without even bothering to look any closer, the youngest member of the Champ family reached up to the mutilated head of the Kong and pulling himself up to one foot, the other leg hanging limply beneath him as he looked over to the Wolf and the Sniper.

Harry waved, and both Zoids responded with a exhausted growls.

And then the world went right back to Hell as the pile of debris shattered nearby, leaving stones and steel bars flying in every direction. Harry screamed, only to find that he couldn't even hear his own voice over the sound of the nearby roaring, and he couldn't remain standing either. With that ground shaking beneath his foot, Harry struggled to hold onto the Kong's head, only to let go and slide down the rest of the way into the crater, where he promptly smacked shoulder-first into a rock and felt something _else_ crack.

"_**FUCK!**_"

His left arm quickly started to go numb as Harry threw the right onto the rock, then sat up enough to see the brutalized, demonic looking Sleeper, towering in place with a gaping hole in its collar. Both wings were now missing, as were its horns, but even in its horribly maimed state, the creature simply refused to quit.

Without even casting Harry a look, the Gyl Vader turned towards the Command Wolf and Gun Sniper, then opened fire.

In an instant, the Sniper went down, its entire body simply ripping apart under the asaault, while the Command Wolf skillfully managed to dodge out of the way and start to close in-

Only to meet the Vader's jaws the instant before it could make any sort of attack.

Giant teeth as big as Harry himself clamped down, the Wolf shrieked what would normally be the cry of a command system freeze and then, like so much garbage, it was hurled aside. A few seconds later, the smaller Zoid, its neck already healing, crashed through the wall of another hangar and kept going, though Harry could hear its body grinding to a halt somewhere inside.

Slowly but surely, the battered Vader staggered forward, heaving with each step as it headed for the hangar...

And then coming to a final, vicious halt as a single clawed hand on a tow cable flew into the hole in its collar and grappled onto its very core. An instant Later, Harry could _feel_ the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as the Vader literally screamed, sounding more like a human than any sort of beast, before its very soul ripped free of the body and spiraled up into the smoke-filled night skies.

With that, the huge monster's body began to stone over, and the clawed hand ripped free. A second later, Harry's eyes had tracked it back to the source...

A Blue Geno Breaker.

* * *

Silence permeated the atmosphere and smoke began to slowly gather along with it. Sparks shot out of virtually every console, and alarms gave the sounds of dying off a few seconds later. He was so tense that his jaw was going numb by the time that he opened his eyes, only to find that the cockpit glass was still largely intact aside from a number of large cracks and random bursts of static here and there. 

Behind him, he could hear nothing but a muffled cross between laughter and crying, and in front of him, he could only see a quartet of nimble clawed feet planted into the ground - two of them still glowing a pale gold.

Finally, Leon Tauros exhaled for the first time in almost a minute, his right ear and eyebrow both twitching nervously as he looked up to the side, only to find himself staring at a beast he hadn't seen in months.

_"The Shadow Fox,"_ he thought in immediate recognition, in spite of the minor changes that had taken place for the other Zoid. _"Then..."_

"You alive in there?" A voice crackled across the comm, which itself was starting to smoke lightly.

"Mark, that you?" Leon asked back, his jaw still aching from how tightly he'd had it clenched.

"Yeah. Looks like you guys've been throwin' an all-nighter from Hell," Mark answered with a grimly amused tone.

"... Did you come alone?" Leon asked hesitantly.

"... Do you think I'm _that_ stupid?"

"... Well, yeah."

* * *

It wasn't over. 

The Gyl Vader was dead, the Prozen Knight was lying in ruin at the edge of a violently formed crater, a Gun Sniper was lying all but dead nearby and at least one building had been collapsed into a pile of rubble, but it wasn't over...

_"You can come out now,"_ Bill Chapman thought to the murderous intent gnawing at the back of his brain. He had practically followed it through the battlefield to this place, after all. _"I know you're not hurt." _

**"Burn. In. Hell,"** three voices replied at the same time, though only one was the source of it all.

Bill simply shook his head while the Geno Breaker slowly stepped around, coming to face the location of the voices.

_"You're even more messed up than me,"_ Bill pointed out, trying to remain calm against a surge of what felt like someone else's rage. It was almost like standing at the edge of a campfire and knowing that no matter what you did, you were going to have to dive into it face-first. The sensations of fear, anger and regret were almost surreal, not because he felt them at all, but because he knew that they weren't his.

For a few moments, there was no reply whatsoever. Only a building, seething mess that had killing intent stamped all over it.

_**"What would you know about us?"**_ The voices demanded, just as something monsterous began to slowly step out of whichever hangar the Gyl Vader had thrown it into.

It had changed again though. Bill didn't even need to have seen its former incarnation to know that much. Where before, it had been a lightning fast mutant Command Wolf of some kind, now it was... Something else entirely.

Structure had shifted, and armor now seemed visibly layered and more angular. Stabilizer caps issued a dim humming sound with each and every step, while the Zoid as a whole seemed to have become larger and more feral in appearance. Its former crash-cage had been replaced by a layer of armor that left only a pair of optics visible - one on either side of the face like the eyes of a real wolf. Its claws had gotten longer, its teeth were sharper and its newly formed optics glowed a violent orange, while the rest of its color shifted about like mixing inks in a pool, with the pattern always centered at the forehead.

_"... More than you'd think,"_ Bill finally answered, with a slow shake of the head.

_**"SHUT UP!" **_

Instantly, the freakish looking Konig Wolf brought its rifles to bear, hurling a pair of massive red beams at the Breaker. Bill responded almost a full tenth of a second ahead of time, lurching the Zoid to the side and bringing one of the pincer shields to bear.

There was a sound like thunder through his ears, and Chapman felt the Geno wanting to stagger back from the force of the blasts. The shots had hit his shield almost dead-on, leaving a pair of sizeable burn marks and craters at the point of impact.

"If that's how you wanna play it," Bill finally mumbled out while straightening the Geno Breaker back up.

The Konig's claws sank a few inches into the asphalt, while the eyes of both Zoids brightened for a few moments.

"Let's get this over with."

**_"DIE!!!" _**The voices replied in kind, so loudly that he couldn't even hear himself think.

With that though, the Konig hurtled forward and the Geno Breaker launched from the ground as well. Their approaches lasted only fractions of seconds, and as each neared the halfway point, it was the Konig that acted first once again.

With a leap, it left the ground and Bill switched the damaged shield forward once again. An instant later, claws raked across its surface, sending sparks flying everywhere before the Konig went airborn all over again from the strike. With an agility so fluid that a normal Zoid could've never matched it, the creature whipped about in mid-air at the same time that the Breaker did, and almost at once, both Zoids opened fire.

Bill winced as both of the Konig's second beams slammed into the Breaker's chest on either side, while his own hail of gunfire ripped across the freak's collar and head. The damage to both was only minor at best - the Breaker's armor was too heavy to be ripped open by the Konig's guns, and the Konig simply regenerated from the already mild damage that had been dealt to it by the Breaker's own.

The Konig landed with a backwards skid along the ground, edging close to the crater in the process as the Geno came to a grinding halt on its leg boosters alone.

**_"It's all your fault,"_** the voices growled out accusingly, their tone echoed by the Konig itself.

_"I know," _Bill replied as apathetically as he could manage.

**_"Don't you have anything to say to that?!" _**

There was a pause.

_"No. Not really,"_ he answered at last, resisting the urge to shrug.

**_"What kind of monster are you?!" _**

_"I'm not a monster," _he answered again. _"Not anymore than you are, at least. The only difference's that I'm not alone now."_

_**"SHUT UP!"**_ The voices demanded again.

_"Come and make me,"_ Bill replied with a grim look on his face and a matching tone in his thoughts.

For what felt like an eternity, the Konig seemed to linger in doubt, the colors washing over it in a sea of green, red and blue, each one unable to dominate the other two for more than a few seconds at a time.

And then it launched forward all over again. Bill met the approach with another hail of gunfire, only to watch almost every single shot miss because of how rapid his target was dodging around.

Less than a second ticked by before the shots ceased and Bill reacted pre-emptively once again. Without a word, he guided the Geno into a sidestep while lashing out with one of the pincer shields, only to catch the Konig off guard in mid-air as it came in for an attack. There was a sound not unlike that of a baseball bat scoring a home run before the Wolf went flying again. It corkscrewed sideways through the air for a few seconds before finally crashing down on its back nearby, its left side almost imploded from the impact.

_**"Why are you doing this?"**_ The voices asked painfully. It was almost like hearing someone speak with gritted teeth after socking them in the gut.

_"Because someone has to." _

**"Bullshit!" **

Bill cracked a slightly fatalistic smirk.

_"You're right,"_ he admitted. _"I don't know why I'm doing it. I just am." _

_**"WHY?!" **_

_"... Because I choose to. That's the only reason I need,"_ he answered.

With that, the Konig finally stood up, its side literally popping back out as the damage undid itself. Bill turned the Breaker about accordingly, and for a few moments after that, neither Zoid budged even an inch.

And then it happened so quickly that most people would've missed it completely. In almost as little time as it took to blink, the Konig had howled and covered the distance to the Geno, leaping into the air and coming back down with claws and teeth blazing with static not unlike the Berserk Fury's buster claws-

_**"AAAHHHHHHH!!!" **_

Only to find itself completely impaled in two places at once by the Geno Breaker's undamaged pincer arm, both blades slipping almost effortlessly through layers of armor and structure. With ease, the Breaker held the Konig straight up into the air, blades embedded in its gut as Bill waited for the screaming to stop. Sparks and internal liquids sprayed and leaked around the pincers from the Konig's chest and stomach, and with every serrated inch that the Wolf slipped down, he could hear something sever inside of it.

Finally though, the screaming ground to an exhausted, sobbing halt, and Bill let out a long sigh to accompany it.

"I'm sorry," he said, and meant it. Not to the voices, but to the Zoid itself.

Without another word, Bill slammed the Konig down into the asphalt so harshly that it left a body imprint several feet deep. The Wolf flailed desperately, and the screaming picked up all over again as he deployed the second pincer claw and stabbed it in the opposite side of the stomach and chest at the same time. With that, the Breaker began to pull to either side, literally ripping the Konig Wolf in half until its chest had split open enough to reveal the Core and the small creature currently wrapped around it-

Just before both talon-fingered hands reached out and tore the spherical organ right out of the Wolf's body. With a yelping shriek that made Bill's blood run cold, the creature flailed around in its death throes, even as its body rapidly began to revert back to its original state. The flood-like coloring faded from the armor, it shrank several times in a row and finally stopped moving as excess material snapped off. With that, Bill used one hand to grapple onto the smaller creature and tear it from the Core with yet another series of screams to follow, just before the organ itself shattered in the Breaker's other hand after turning to stone.

The brutalized lump of an Organoid in its left hand seemed to struggle for a few moments and then-

There was a vivid flash of red and black. Whatever had happened to the creature, it was gone now.

_"... Why?"_ Only one voice asked this time, sobbing pathetically. _"Why did-" _

"It doesn't matter why," Bill answered.

There was another pause as the dead Wolf's head caved in, leaving a battered looking girl in her mid-teens to literally claw her way back up out of the ground.

"Welcome to my world," Bill finally said aloud, staring down at where Leyla Tsun was still struggling to unearth herself.

Without another word, he looked back towards the hole in the fortress walls. It was almost over. The sun would be coming up soon...

It was almost over, but...

"It's still not over yet."

With that, the Geno Breaker's boosters activated again, and Bill Chapman immediately headed back into the frey.

End Chapter Eleven

* * *

**Author's Note:** Finally o.o About three weeks later than I'd intended, but oh well. With any luck, the D00m Siege ends next chapter and I can get on to building towards some of the _real_ AHBL >.>

As an aside: Kudos to Phelan for beta-reading this sucker and convincing me that the last scene didn't suck o.o

Kudos also to Leyla, for actually writing easily for once. Little snooty bitch that she is. Bigger-Kudos to Bill for beating the shit out of her XD

And somebody beat Xing Lee with a Complaint Brick. The upload system left errors in here involving bold/italicized text and I'm not sure if I got 'em all or not e.e

And please, somebody stab me before I try and write a Naruto fic ;.;

Sh33p out.


	12. A Late Delivery from Avalon

**Foreword:** Soundtrack below. 

**Scene One:** Witch Hunter Robin - Flame  
**Scene Two:** E.S. Posthumus - Nara  
**Scene Three:** Finger Eleven - One Thing  
**Scene Four:** .hackSIGN - A Stray Child  
**Scene Five:** Sarah McLachlan - I Will Remember You  
**Scene Six:** Gundam SEED - Wheel of Destiny  
**Scene Seven:** Staind - So Far Way

* * *

**Tides of Darkness**  
A Late Delivery from Avalon 

It was the morning twilight. Smoke filled the skies and the ground looked like a hellish warzone that was going to leave scars in the ground for decades - maybe even centuries. While the fighting had died down enough that it was possible to hear oneself thinking, gunshots and the sounds of sheering metal or explosions could be heard in every direction even now. While piles of debris lay scattered about on all sides, it was obvious that beyond them, the battle still raged.

"This is your last chance, if you wanna go back and wait," he offered somewhat hesitantly. "It's not like anyone's making you-"

"Shut up and drive, Kyle," Kat responded as bluntly as a baseball bat.

"Righto," he replied dimly. It was actually somewhat amusing how the leader-by-default was still being lorded over by his girlfriend...

In a pussywhipped kind of way.

The grimly amused little smirk that had been on his face a few seconds before died away though, as the Ivory Blade Liger rounded another heaping junkpile in time for a damaged looking Raptor to stagger out in front of it, shrieking irately and holding the bits and pieces of a _real_ Rev Raptor's head in its mouth. Without even giving the thing the time of day, Kyle had activated the shield and plowed right through the little Sleeper, sending it flying into the air only to crash back down on its head and-

Abruptly, the Liger ducked down. Kyle sputtered a curse and Kat followed suit almost instantly as both pilot and passenger heaved downward with the momentum of the Zoid. A second later, a decidedly undamaged Raptor went flying overhead, landing with both feet on a pile of rubble and twisting about to bring its saws to bear. With that, the Raptor jumped again...

And found itself impaled completely on the Liger's right blade. Kyle hadn't even finished giving the order for the shield to drop. He'd literally intended on doing it and the rest just fell into place like the last pieces of a puzzle.

The Raptor shrieked indifference though, flailing around as its core split ruptured and exploded, leaving only a pile of stone and metal to crash to the ground a few seconds later. With that, Kyle turned his attentions elsewhere-

And again found himself ducking a third Raptor that had been hiding in ambush.

"Repetitive much?" He asked somewhat smugly as this Raptor landed in the same place as the one before it, only to run down towards the front of the Liger...

Where it promptly found its head and chest imploded from a glowing golden Strike Laser Claw. Without the dramatic shouting that guys like Mark and Bit Cloud tended to enjoy. As with before, he had simply intended on doing it and the Liger had acted accordingly.

_"Could get used to this,"_ he mused, checking the scanners to be sure that there wasn't a _fourth_ Raptor lying in wait somewhere. Thankfully, that seemed to be the last of them in this spot.

"Open up a channel to the others," he ordered, instantly regretting it upon feeling the scathing look of Kat's eyes burning into the back of his head. It was enough to make most men wince, and Kyle wasn't any different. "You _did_ say you wanted to help..."

"I said I wanted to come along for moral support, ya lazy bum," Katherine replied. "But comm's on... Now," she added a second later, looking pleased with herself.

"Report in," Kyle ordered simply, not even wanting to think about how militaristic he was sounding.

"Fine," Bill replied first.

"Found Leon Tauros, playing guard dog... _Sir_," Mark added next with a near-sadistically amused tone to his voice.

_"... You're gonna pay for that," _Kyle left unsaid with a slight twitch of his brow.

"Almost done up here," Pierce added after what sounded like a few seconds of hesitation. Since it was audio-only right now, he had to wonder what her expression was.

"Everything's pointy. I hate pointy," Jamie chimed in not long after that. He sounded decidedly less amused than anyone but Bill right now.

"Alright. I'll need everyone to check- _fuckin' hell_!" He shouted out with no warning at all, promptly echoed by both Jamie and Pierce, then Mark a few seconds later. Even though Kyle could see none of their expressions, he knew what they were, and he also knew why they had them. The reason was actually quite simple.

It was a Whale King, type five or six, coming in at an absurdly low altitude and dropping Zoids off every step of the way. The guns normally hidden in its sides and belly were exposed and firing like mad, and as its shadow passed overhead, Kyle literally braced himself in the cockpit. Barely a moment later, a shockwave from its engines almost knocked the Liger right off its feet, and it wasn't long after that when a transmission came out on all channels.

"The cavalry has arrived," said the voice of a man that Kyle immediately recognized as Stigma Stoller. With that, the transmission cut off and he could see something easily identified as the Elephander dropping out of the mouth of the Whale King and landing somewhere across the city, followed by the immediate rumble and glow of gunfire. Almost everywhere at once, the tide didn't just turn, it came to a halt and then reversed completely.

"Well... Can't say I'm not surprised," Kyle admitted after a few seconds. Nobody else even bothered speaking to that.

* * *

It was finally over. 

That realization alone would've brought most people to their knees, but rather than all of that, Marry Champ simply allowed herself a slow, ragged breath as she climbed up out of what was left of the brutalized Dark Horn and fought off the urge to cry. Convention said that warrior-princesses weren't supposed to shed tears after a battle, and although Marry scarcely believed herself to be much of a warrior even after last night, she wasn't in any mood to defy convention.

Instead, she finally felt her feet hitting the rough ground through the soles of her boots. Her knees felt like jelly, her hips were cramped, her back was sore and her arm was now hanging limp and numb with only makeshift gauze and bandaging to hide where the shard had pierced her flight suit and the skin beneath it. With a sigh, she had brought her uninjured hand up to further cover the wound.

_"So much death,"_ she thought with a distinct sense of detachment from it all.

It was as though someone had given her an out of body experience, then dipped her heart in novacaine when she'd come back to it. Even as she began to step forward on the rough and uneven dirt, asphalt and whatever else happened to make up the ground, she couldn't help but feel as though she shouldn't have survived the night when so many others had been killed during it...

_--"**TIGERS TO THE END!!!**"_ --

She couldn't help but wince at the sight of the crater where those three had sacrificed their lives. It was as deep as a typical swimming pool, but easily twice as wide. The walls might as well have been lined with painted glass considering how they'd been charred black during the explosion, and even though the blast that had formed it had taken place hours ago, it was still smoking and she could still feel heat coming off of it from more than thirty feet away.

"I wish I'd gotten to know the three of you," she said aloud, and meant it. "I owe you my life..."

Before she could continue drowning in reverence for strangers though, her attentions were drawn away from the crater by the sound of an irate growl nearby. In turn, it was followed by metal crunching. When Marry finally glanced off to the side, she was greeted by the sight of her true guardian from the night before.

It was the Black Shield Liger. Covered in only minor spots of damage from the battle, it now stood tall over a pile of what had once been Raptors. Its claws were issuing what looked like golden smoke, and its teeth did the same. Beneath its feet, a Raptor's stoning head was being crushed with an almost feral sense of patience, and its mouth dripped fluids from however many Sleepers it had killed to protect her.

"I guess I owe you my life too, don't I?" Marry asked with a grim smile, finally turning towards the beast outright as she regarded it.

Its only reply was another low growl before it abruptly crushed the head of the Raptor beneath its clawed foot.

"Maybe... I could repay you with a name?" She asked after a few seconds. The Zoid seemed to pause completely as the last whisps of smoke left its teeth and claws, head slowly tilting to one side.

If Shield Ligers could be more expressive, Marry imagined that this one would've probably had a strange look on its face. Maybe a raised brow, if it had eyes. It wasn't really an amusing thought for her, but anything that staved off images of those Zabers self-destructing couldn't be too bad.

"I think... You belonged to one of my aunts, didn't you? A woman named Charlot Amadeus Champ, I think," she began, causing the Liger to elicit several low growls. Obviously, it seemed to remember the woman. "Well..."

Marry paused, staring down towards her feet for a moment. Then she smiled, for real this time.

"I think she'd be happy to know that your new name is Amadeus," she explained, looking back up from the ground to try and make what amounted to eye contact with the newly named Shield Liger.

Several seconds later, the entire countryside rumbled and shook from a single deafening roar. Amadeus obviously approved.

* * *

The last Sleeper issued a shriek as its neck exploded in flames and sparks, sending debris flying in a perfect ring as the head literally fell off. A few seconds later, the rest of it fell over and slammed into the ground with a deafening thud, echoing across what now looked like little more than a burning junkyard. 

With that, a pair of talon-equipped feet touched down onto the ground. Their owner landed with a skid and a crouch, head tilting this way and that as the pilot took one final glance down at the scanners. She already knew there was nothing left after all of the violence from the last night, but it was always best to be thorough...

And she _had_ been thorough. As she'd expected, there wasn't a single Sleeper left on the scanners at the Northern sector.

The Gun Raptor issued an exhausted growl, and Leena Tauros echoed it with a tired sigh. Bringing one hand up to rub her eyes, she also made a point of checking the Zoid's status and matching it up to memory.

A little under two-hundred kills, and she still had three rounds left in each gun. The worst damage had been intentional, and amounted to a few beam holes in the side of one shoulder.

"Nnn... I'd say we've done our job," she commented to the Raptor with a dull tone, and it nodded tiredly in agreement.

With no further prompting, the triumphant little Zoid turned away and began to walk towards Gyran fortress.

* * *

For the thirty-second time, he decided that he didn't want to be awake right now. 

He was lying in an onboard bunk bed. He wreaked of blood, ash, vomit and gunpowder. He hadn't bathed in weeks, maybe even as long as a month. In the span of three days, he must have killed more people than he could've ever counted, and many of the dirty work had been by his own hand with a knife. His brother was dead too, also by his own hand. Even if that death had been more sterile than a lot of the others since it had been through Zoid combat.

He had seen things that even now, his mind struggled to comprehend. A man who'd been nothing but a prisoner in his own body for years, yet willingly ended up giving his life for the most hideous cause imaginable, simply because he wanted to end it all. An Organoid so driven to evil for reasons so alien that he didn't think he would've understood even if he knew what those motives were.

And then, above all of the others...

There had been him.

A youth only a few years younger than he was, embodying violence down to the very core. He had murdered thousands, be it for misguided revenge or simply for the thrill of it all. In his eyes, he had seen nothing short of Hell itself, underscored by a grin that made him tremble in fear up until the very last time that they'd clashed.

And in the end, Bit Cloud was becoming just like him. He had fallen from grace, and he had done it so horribly that he had _helped_ the end of the world.

For the thirty-_third_ time, he decided that he didn't want to be awake right now.

He also decided that he really wanted to be alone.

_You're in pain right now_, Zeke pointed out from the corner of the room. Bit simply kept his back turned to the Organoid, preferring to try and sleep on his side, staring at a wall in the dark.

"I'd be in less if you'd just fuck off and die," he growled out.

_I can't do that, and we both know that you don't mean that either_, the Organoid said in a voice eerily similar to his own. Belatedly, Bit wondered whether he had ever noticed how nerve-wracking it was to share your thoughts with another creature...

He couldn't really tell though. It was like the world had divided into three neat little slices: Normalcy, the precursor and everything after Asmodeus' awakening. Normalcy was nothing but a blur of color and sound, running from birth to the night he had traded blows with that demon called Obscura. Precursor encompassed everything afterward, and while none of it was a blur, it all divided and threaded into so many different directions that he couldn't make out one thing from another...

And everything after Asmodeus was so crystal clear that even thinking about it made him want to throw his guts up on the floor. He had long since run out of mostly-digested food stuffs and bile back in Nyx, after all.

"Why didn't you ever tell me? About Vilhelm..."

_What difference would it have made? You simply would've held back when you fought him out of pity. _

"Why didn't we just go in together right off the bat?"

_We were both too weak. _

"Why didn't Madison and Roc just wipe them all out then?"

Zeke gave the notion of a grimace.

_Because it wasn't their place. _

There was one pause...

"Why did I fail?"

Then another...

"_Why_?" Bit asked again, sounding angrier this time.

_... I don't know_, Zeke answered after a longer pause than either of the two before it. The notion of a grimace gave way to one of an outright frown.

Bit twitched.

"**_AND WHY THE HELL AM I BECOMING LIKE HIM?!_**" He finalled screamed, whipping around and bolting upright to his feet so quickly that he didn't even notice his head whacking against the frame of the bunk. In the dark, all he could see of Zeke was a faint shimmer across the Organoid's golden skin and the dull glow of two green optics...

Both of which were glazed as if on the edge of tears.

_You're not... _

"**_I TRIED TO STRANGLE A FUCKING TWELVE YEAR OLD!_**" Bit replied furiously, taking one stomp forward as Zeke gave the notion of taking a step back.

_You're not like him, Bit_, Zeke finally, futily tried to point out.

Bit's only response was to reach down at his side, grab the Handleblade and twirl it in one hand for a few seconds-

"No..."

Just before stopping the movement and slashing it right across his other forearm so quickly that the blood splattered off of the knife blade and landed on the floor audibly. Without even bothering to pay attention to the wound, he shook the knife off and then raised his newly cut arm up...

"I'm worse," he said, and meant it. "At least _he_ didn't count a fucking _messiah_ as an ancestor... Let alone _three_," he growled out.

_... Why did you do that?_ Zeke asked belatedly, even as the wound began to shimmer a light gold and close up.

"... I don't know. Something about hero's blood in my veins or something... I forgot," Bit admitted after a few seconds, sheathing the Handleblade without another word.

_Blood doesn't make you who you are_, Zeke pointed out.

"I know," Bit replied, flopping back down into bed and rolling over onto his side again. By now, the cut had healed completely.

_You should get something to eat... And a shower. _

"I don't feel like it. Why eat when you can't starve? Why be clean when the world's lyin' in pieces all around?" Bit asked, rolling onto his back and staring at the bottom of the upper bunk, though it was still too dark to see anything in detail.

_Because such things remind you that you're still alive... And still human. _

"... Human. What a joke," Bit replied, closing his eyes again and deciding, for the thirty-fifth time, that he really didn't want to be awake right now.

* * *

Twelve hours. For twelve long, gruelling hours, they had all fought. More so than almost anyone else on the battlefield, she had seen the violence firsthand through a sniper scope. She had been able to see, in perfect clarity, Zoids dropping like flies as their cockpits were blown open and their cores ruptured. She had been able to see even as the pilots themselves were ripped out of their seats, alive and screaming even as they'd been hurled to their deaths or reduced to a reddish pulp. 

Even with all of the fatalities on both sides though - humans and Zoids alike - only two of them really stood out. They were the ones that had happened within a hundred yards of her, in place sight.

One had been an outright vaporization, the other had been an infinitely more bloody affair of a mutant Redler's blade crashing through the cockpit. Both had happened in what she percieved to be slow motion, yet it had been all too quick to even wrap her mind around.

Oddly enough, even though only two of them had been related at all, she felt that they were all sisters. From the way they had first met to the way they had prepared to go into battle for the last time...

Right down to those stupid markings on her fist. Those had been Claire's idea. Right before they'd all climbed into their Zoids, she had whipped out a permanent marker and scribbled some foriegn letters across their hands, each one supposedly symbolic of an ancient word for friendship. She'd said the language was supposed to be something called Japanese, but neither of the others had really understood the point at the time.

At this point, she'd've given almost anything to bring Claire back and let her know that the markings weren't stupid at all. After all, she'd spoken to the Dead only hours before but...

Something told her that it would've been a moot point to speak to Claire now. If only because, she felt, that the girl already knew.

For whatever reason, this brought her a shred of comfort. That shred lead into a small smile as she reached one hand up and wiped a few tears from her face.

_"I won't forget either of you,"_ Naomi Fluegel thought as she clenched her right hand - the one that Claire had drawn on.

Behind her, the Red Comet Gunsniper lay in ruin, completely devestated by the rigors of combat and the blast that should've been heard around the world. Even so, it had served her well. Chunks of its armor had been ripped open, and even more had melted all together. Both arms were gone, the tail had broken and one of the legs was also missing as well. It had run out of ammo in every gun, to the point that she had suicidally thrown it against one of the last enemies still standing...

At the thought of it, she finally turned away from the rising sun and glanced off to the side, where there now stood nothing but a mutilated smoking crater and a few piles of debris. What was left of the Iron Kong gleamed a near-solid black, exactly like the crater itself. What was left of the Sleeper lay in a pile of stone not far from that, the head topping it all off as it seemed to scream forever in silence.

And yet, there was still life in there.

Naomi's eyes widened to the size of quarters as she watched it happen.

Slowly but surely, with the kind of effort reserved to people who had the fate of the world dangling from their fingertips, a brutalized looking young man was using one hand and one leg to literally claw his way up the side of the crater. One of his arms, along with the opposite leg, looked to be broken and bleeding. His back looked singed to the point that it had probably only just stopped smouldering, and though she couldn't quite see it, Naomi knew his face was probably contorted into a look of absolutely rigid determination.

A few months ago, she probably would've been mortified to the brink of throwing up.

Right now, she realized, all she wanted to do was lend a helping hand.

"Hang on!" She shouted, just before taking off for the crater as quickly as her legs could carry her.

* * *

_"What in the Hell happened here?"_ He wondered to himself with a jaw that, for the first time in months, was slacked in a mixture of horror and awe. It was like stepping into a cross between a recently looted graveyard and an outright warzone. Dead Zoids lay scattered and in piles in almost every direction, some of them normal, many of them appearing freakishly deformed and many more so brutalized that their bodies had stoned over and collapsed. A few human bodies could be seen as well, though they were only barely distinguishable from bloody stains and vaguely humanoid bricks of ash. A few shadows had even been burnt into the ground. 

In all honesty, it was one of the most horrible things that Jack Sisco had ever seen. He had trouble just wrapping his mind around it, let alone the circumstances that had created it all. Whatever battle had been raging in Champton prior to his arrival, judging by the evidence, it had been nothing short of a thousand nightmares rolled into one.

Even so, it was easy to find a small spot of numbed disbelief and continue to trudge on. He had always been that way.

Soon enough, he had managed to shut himself off to it and continue onward, guiding the Lightning Saix through a series of short and sharp turns around piles of debris, only to abruptly grind to a halt in recognition.

Directly in front of him was a colossal mountain of what had once been debris. At its foot, he could see what remained of a brutalized Lightning Saix, its cockpit open but no bloodstains visible on the ground...

_"Why the **Hell** would they be here?"_ He asked himself as that comfortable numbness began to drop like a stone into his gut. Chris and Kelly's parents were divorced after all, and neither of the sisters particularly favored urban sprawls like Champton...

Had the situations all become so bad that the whole Tasker family had reconvened here? And if so, were the sisters alright?

The feeling in his gut intensified as Jack rounded another corner, only to find himself halting in even more recognition at the sight he was greeted with.

The Red Blade Liger, battered to the point that it didn't even look capable of standing anymore, and the Shadow Fox. The Red Blade had obviously trekked here with some assistance before finally falling into a slump, and judging by its sorry state, it wasn't going to move again anytime soon, but-

The pilots were outside.

Standing in plain view was a man that Jack quickly identified as Marcus Harlock, sipping coffee out of an ugly looking mug the size of a small pitcher, and next to him, on the nose of the Liger, sat one Leon Tauros. At this distance, he had trouble picking out their expressions, and there simply wasn't any way to hear what they were talking about, if anything at all, but he could tell that one of them had been through Hell. Leon's posture was slumped badly for a man of his stature, and his head seemed to be hanging almost limply from his shoulders.

_"May as well see if they know anything,"_ he reasoned after a few seconds, uneasily slowing the Saix down and guiding it over towards the two of them.

By the time he had arrived, only Harlock seemed to have noticed him, jolting an elbow into Tauros and getting little response. When Jack opened the cockpit, Leon simply found something of interest to look at involving the Saix's back foot...

"What the Hell happened?!" Jack shouted down at the two. Harlock's response seemed unusually measured given what Jack knew of the guy.

"You're Jack Sisco, right?!" He called up, setting his coffee down on the Liger's snout and straightening up.

"Yeah..."

"Ya might wanna get down here," Harlock suggested with a grim tone.

Less than five seconds later, Jack had hurriedly discarded the safety harness and made the leap down to the ground, twenty or so feet below. When he landed, his legs jolted with the shock, but he had already straightened up before Harlock could even finish taking a breath.

"What. Happened?" He asked again.

"All Hell broke loose," Harlock answered.

"Were Chris and Kelly involved?" Jack asked.

"Yes."

"_Where are they_?" He demanded, fists clenching.

"Well..."

Mark trailed off, head tilting over towards Leon. The Liger pilot was utterly unresponsive though, leaving Jack to quickly assume the worst and-

"Kelly..." Leon finally spoke up, only to pause and stumble for words. Impatiently, Sisco waited until, "Ke-"

"**_KELLY'S DEAD!_**" A woman's voice shrieked behind him in what could best be described as pure agony. Abruptly, Jack felt himself shoved forward several steps by a weight that all but jumped onto his back. Even as the words left his heart to sink through to his knees, his mind managed to recognize the voice and the person as that of Chris Tasker.

"W-wha-_what_?!" He responded with a lump in his throat.

"... Yeah. She died. Last night," Leon replied, still looking away. He sounded like he had been kicked in the face by a wild mule.

"**_WHAT?!_**" Jack finally screamed out, only to realize he was trembling by then. Chris had her face buried into his back and her arms were wrapped around his midsection, but all that he could focus on was Leon Tauros.

The guiltless _bastard_ who didn't even have the courage to look at him.

"I wasn't fast enough..." Tauros blathered.

Less than a second later, Jack had ripped forward, leaving Chris to stumble back, Mark to jump aside and Leon to fly right back over the edge of the Liger's snout and into the cockpit as Sisco's fist cracked across his lower jaw. Loudly.

"**_WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF EXCUSE IS THAT?!_**" Jack found himself screaming while crashing sideways into the side of the Zoid's head, unable to stop his own momentum after the right hook he'd just delivered. Not that he cared to anyway. Barely a second later, he was trying to scramble up into the cockpit and strangle Leon by hand, but instead found a pair of sturdy arms locked around him from the side.

Even as Jack flailed, cursed, kicked and screamed his head off, Marcus Harlock forcibly pried him away from the Liger and its pilot. It wasn't an easy struggle though.

"**_LET GO OF ME! I'LL FUCKIN' KILL HIM!_**" Jack demanded, finally smacking Mark across the head with an elbow. As a result, not only did the former Gustav trucker let go and stumble aside, but his temple also started to bruise while that worn baseball cap fell to the ground.

Again, Jack dove forward, even as Chris was screaming at him to stop and-

Fell flat on his face as he felt Mark reach out, grab him by an ankle and literally yank him back.

"_Calm down_!" Mark demanded, practically playing tug-of-war with Jack over his own leg.

"**_FUCK OFF, REDNECK!_**" Jack replied in kind, hobbling around on one foot as he reached out, grabbed the rim of the Liger's cockpit and then used his other hand to reach into his jacket. With that, he'd grabbed the handle of his gun and-

"That's enough, Jack," Leon finally stated, having by now leaned upright. Without even giving Sisco the chance to think, he had knocked his hand off the Liger and climbed back out of the cockpit.

"_Shut up_," Jack ordered, finally yanking his foot free of Mark's grasp and whipping around. The revolver was almost out of its holster by now, but...

"Don't you have more important things to do," Leon began, just as the two finally made eye contact. At once, whatever bitterness and contempt Jack had literally washed away in the face of a man who now seemed to look like some kind of walking corpse. It was as if someone had taken Leon Tauros' drive and ripped it right out through his eye sockets, leaving little more than empty grey windows to stare back out at the world.

"Than to take out your grief on a failure?" He finished bluntly, offering no defense whatsoever.

For a few seconds, Jack just stared at him. Chris was crying off to his right, and Mark was rubbing his head with a sore look. Finally though...

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I do..."

For a few more seconds, Jack and Leon stared at each other, before Sisco finally turned away with a huff and walked over to Chris. Without even so much as a word, she had thrown herself against him all over again.

It was going to be a long day...

* * *

"You should let me take you to a sickbay," she pointed out as the two of them half-walked, half-hobbled through the barely intact doorway, ducking to avoid exposed re-bar and a hanging pipe as they did so. 

"There are more important things to worry about right now," he replied in kind, his voice sounding as ragged as someone who hadn't slept in the better part of three weeks. Knowing his recent schedule though, she didn't really doubt that this was the case. Atop sleep deprivation though, where the more pressing issues of burns across his back, a broken arm and leg and at least three cracked or broken ribs - among other things.

"I still don't understand," she said, pausing once they had entered the hallway, its lights flickering on and off as both main and emergency power supplies struggled to match the weight of the demands being placed on them. "You may end up dying if you've got any internal bleeding..."

"There are more important things to worry about right now," he said again. One of his eyes was half-shut, the other was wide open as if on a coffee binge. Both were bloodshot and beneath them, his mouth had curled into what resembled a cracked looking smile.

Rather than questioning him further though, Naomi Fluegel simply shook her head and continued to awkwardly hobble along with most of Harry Champ's weight slung across her shoulders from the side. Even now, he refused to be carried, preferring instead to hop alongside her using his one good leg while the other just hung brokenly, accompanied by his broken arm. Even his face looked bruised and a bit burnt, with ash caked along the tips of a few hairs from his near-suicide attack on the last Sleeper.

But in spite of all of that, for some inexplicable reason, Harry kept wanting to make his way down beneath the base and declare victory to the people. She didn't understand it even for a second though, for the simple reason that such declarations only mattered in the history books. Here and now, it was like playing Russian roullette with a fully loaded handgun.

Soon enough though, they had finally reached an elevator. When it didn't come on call, the result of a power failure or structural damage no doubt, Harry had directed her to a flight of stairs and Naomi, after some disagreement, complied. The walk down was awkward and ungainly at best, with Naomi having to go first by one to two steps at a time just to keep from having Harry fall over and send them both tumbling down to their deaths, but after almost an hour of painstaking effort, without much conversation between them, the two had arrived at the last lower level Harry had been in.

A few minutes later, they had emerged into a hallway of people who looked as if they came from every single walk of life possible, and even a few that weren't. From refugees with no place to belong to at all to upper class executives and the like - all of them were huddled along the walls of an underground hallway, beneath Gyran's layers of concrete, re-bar and dirt. Upon entry though, every single one of them snapped to look at Harry's battered carcass with such speed that she could actually _hear_ it.

None of them spoke after that. They simply waited.

And for a few seconds, Harry left them that way. Even as Naomi finally looked away to the crowds to try and get a look at his face, his head was hung too low for even her to see. She could hear him breathing though, and feel the muscles in his arm tightening before finally...

"_**WE WON!!!**_" He screamed, hurling his head upright and bursting into a shocked type of laughter that seemed to reverberate through everything in sight. For several long, almost agonizing seconds, the halls were echoing with the message and the laugh after it, while everyone around the pair seemed to collective drop their jaws.

At last though, the partial silence cracked. A few people mumbled their disbelief.

And then, it shattered like glass into a veritable symphony of laughing, screaming, crying and cheering that echoed across every single surface in the hallway, while no less than five people rushed forward to grab Harry out of her arms and heave him up onto their shoulders.

"Get the word out!" He ordered with sudden authority. "_We survived_! And we're gonna _keep_ surviving!"

And as Harry was more or less carried off by the people, sending others running down several more passageways, Naomi Fluegel finally let out a smile of her own.

_"So... That's what it means to be a Champ," _she thought, just before collapsing back into a wall, sliding down to the floor and bursting into laughter so hard that she started crying a few seconds later.

_End Chapter Twelve

* * *

_

**Author's Note:** What an up-and-down pain in the ass chapter this was to write >.>; But yes, the Doom Siege is officially, finally _over_. 

And for the record: Jack Sisco is a pain in the ass to write. I may kill him out of spite if he persists e.e :But points: Marry and Amadeus however(both of which _will_ be important in the long run), wrote quite easily.

Also sorry for any formatting screw-ups. FFN is still out to fuck me, I tell ya...

And BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! TOD HATH FINALLY HIT THE 100,000 WORD MARK! >D...

Granted, it was supposed to two chapters ago, but better late than never. I'm actually hoping it hits the 300,000 mark by the time it's all said and done o.o

Anywho, reviews are addressed in the usual place, find the link in my bio. Sh33p out.


	13. Survivors

**Foreword:** Soundtrack below.

**Scene 1/2/3:** E.S. Posthumus - Nara  
**Scene 4:** Steve Conte - Heaven's Not Enough  
**Scene 5:** Gundam SEED - Wheel of Destiny  
**Scene 6:** Witch Hunter Robin - STN  
** Scene 7:** Witch Hunter Robin - Plot

* * *

**

Tides of Darkness

**  
Survivors

* * *

It had been around two hours since the major fighting ended, yet it still felt as if the battle was raging on. In a way, it had felt like that ever since that night when dreams had died. He could still remember hearing Brad screaming about launching the Scout Fox, and wondering where Bit was and how he was doing in the midst of all of it. He had woken up only blearily during the middle of the carnage, and since then... 

It was almost like life could be divided into seperate chunks that all coincided with each other like the strands of fiber in an ever thinning rope. 

Before Jamie could put much more thought into it though, he was drawn out of his zoned-out state by the sudden sound of a broadband transmission. 

"All Zoids are to return to base at once! I repeat, all Zoids are to return to base at once!" 

He blinked. It almost felt disappointing, considering how far they had come and how all of them had practically _jumped_ into combat. Even so, Jamie responded to the message with a shrug before complying. Seconds after the transmission ended, the Raynos JT had banked down towards Gyran and kicked on its forward thruster before slowly coming to a halt and setting down in the vicinity of a rather gaping crater and a pile of debris. He had lost sight of Pierce's position outside of radar, and to be brutally honest, he also didn't care that much to have to deal with her right now. 

Or anyone else for that matter. Combat anymore... It just had the tendency to take the wind out of his sails, piss on it and throw it off a bridge. Without the Wild Eagle - without _Will_ - around, there wasn't really much to be enjoyed about it. Odd as it was, he had come to actually miss letting his other personality take control. As invasive and volatile as the relationship between them had been, it had always been something he could count on no matter what. Whenever the world became too much, Will could swoop in and take over... 

And damn the loss of life that followed. 

With a sigh of relief, he felt the feet of the Raynos hit asphalt and took a look over his shoulder to see where Stoller's Whale King was touching down. Naturally enough, the huge thing had wound up heading over to where all the _other_ Whale Kings were parked and- 

And the thought suddenly struck him: _"Why in the hell didn't they just take the Whale Kings and use them as mobile fortresses or something?"_

It wasn't until a few seconds later that the answer finally struck him: _"Because most civilian Whale Kings don't have enough firepower for more than basic defense."_

That little logic problem out of the way, it didn't take long to pry off his safety harness and open up the cockpit before standing up with a loud, painful sounding stretch. From there, he simply placed a hand onto the side of the cockpit and heaved himself over it, falling down a few yards before finally landing with an awkward crouch and the sudden movements of both arms to keep himself from falling over. Even though he had seemingly absorbed Will, he still lacked his other self's complete disregard for things like common sense and feeling pain when it was appropriate. 

It wasn't until a full minute or two after he had hopped out of the Raynos that Jamie even noticed the sound of rocks shifting nearby, followed by the sound of someone laughing a bit sadistically. 

When he turned his head to find the source though... 

"_You_?" 

He immediately wished he hadn't. 

"Long time no see, Jamie," Leyla Tsun greeted him, one of her eyes shut and the other only half-open. She was sitting atop a shallow pile of stoned-over Zoid armor, clad in a standard Champton Defense Force jumpsuit and looking as if she had been so far over the edge that she didn't even notice her own condition. She was bleeding from both ears, and had a dozen cuts, scrapes and bruises to her hands, plus a few larger cuts across her body and legs... 

And she was smiling like a maniac at the end of the universe. 

"How ya been?" She asked, seeming to completely ignore the awkwardness of the moment until- 

"... What the hell happened to you?" Jamie asked. 

Leyla looked half-ready to answer, but whatever she was going to say ended up coming out slurred in some foriegn language. With that, her eyes opened entirely to reveal that they weren't changing colors anymore, and then- 

Her head lulled back and Leyla fell over backwards. She was out like a light by the time her head hit the ground. 

For a long couple of minutes, Jamie just stared at his fallen ex-girlfriend-of-sorts, before finally just shaking his head all together. 

_ "I'm not the only one who's changed, but... At this point, I don't really care what's happened to you,"_ he thought, just before stepping forward and speaking to himself like he sometimes wished Will was around to hear, do or reply to in some snotty way. 

"May as well get you to a doctor, or something," he said, just before all but scraping Leyla off the ground and flinging her onto one of his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. 

With that, Jamie walked off towards one of the more intact hangars with a grim look on his face and an apathetic gleam in his eyes.

* * *

The gunfire had died down, but there was still far too much work to be done for his tastes. Losses needed to be tallied, combat data analyzed and an inventory needed to be taken on all the Zoids that could be repaired or were still somehow functional. It was a daunting task, especially after an entire night spent behind the firing line, coordinating almost every single movement of Gyran's built-in defenses - most of which were now burning, smoking or already destroyed from a combination of battle damage and flat-out overuse. Supercannons weren't meant to be fired more than once every few seconds, and laser cannons had the annoying tendency to overheat at the worst possible times. 

These were things that had been their job to fix. In fact, that was the main reason he and his exhausted comrade hadn't gotten into their Zoids and run out into the midst of battle with everyone else. Put simply: They had been the in-base 'fixers.' The go-to guys, combat IT and all that. Whenever things had broken, they had rushed to fix it, even if their 'repairs' were only patchwork at best for numerous reasons. In less than one night, even in the middle of pitched combat, they had singlehandedly reprogrammed the firing patterns on almost every single turret that had been in the base. They had managed to repair at least a dozen Zoids - _without_ help - in the middle of the battle with only sparse protection whenever the gates opened and closed. They had even gone so far as to repair the base's primary power supply twice in a row, even if it was only a temporary solution at best. 

In all ways, Steven Tauros and Leyon Martin looked like they had been through every bit as much Hell as the people who had actually been fighting. They were each covered in so much sweat that it had seeped through their clothes - which weren't even jumpsuits or fatigues, just their normal civilian get-ups with 'in-field custom' flak jackets worn over their lab coats - and both looked as if they hadn't showered in well over a month. Between them, they had sustained three steam burns to either leg, a black eye for Leyon, a bloodied forehead for Steve, singed hair for both, smoke inhalation, sleep deprivation, numerous bruises from the neck down and roughed up palms that hurt to even make fists with. 

Yet in spite of all that, both of them were wide awake, resting exhaustedly on long emptied ammo crates and watching as one-by-one, wounded pilots were carted into the hangar-turned field hospital. It had been downright amazing, how much medical equipment had been spread out in only the past fifteen minutes that they'd been in there, not to mention how one particularly insane looking little twerp was running around with a drum of red paint on a cart and a mop, using it to paint red cross symbols on the outside of every doorway, along with arrows and just about anything else. 

By now though, the hangar was starting to wreak of human blood, burnt flesh and clothing, medical chemicals and so much other battle-related things. Medics ranging from interns to nurses to doctors of all kinds were rushing from one end of the hangar to the other, and surgeries were being carried out on the floor with nothing but tarps and loosely jammed in-pads or soft wood to seperate patients from the concrete beneath them. Screams, moans of pain and calls to God echoed out almost unendingly, and in all honesty... 

"I don't know how in God's name you can eat right now," Steve commented with a nervous twitch after glancing over to Leyon, who had - _somehow_ - managed to not only find a can of ramen, but also cook it to the point that it was steaming. Granted, the can stank of gunpowder, but still. 

"Ah'm hung'y, damnit," Leyon replied in kind, seemingly oblivious to how the ramen was probably burning his tastebuds. 

"... There are people _bleeding to death less than ten feet from you_!" Steven stated, pointing furiously at a spot that was, indeed, less than ten feet away, where a man about their own age was being given a rushed blood transfusion even while someone was working feverishly to cauterize an internal injury with nothing but a portable laser and obviously frayed nerves. Which also, coincidentally, meant that the guy's stomach had been gashed open somewhere along the way. 

"... Sho?" Leyon replied, noodles hanging from his mouth. 

Steven's jaw dropped. Then comfortable numbness set in and for some reason, a garbled 'So?' seemed so appropriate that he wondered why he ever questioned it at all. With that, Tauros turned his attentions back towards the rest of the hangar- 

And abruptly felt both brows shoot straight up into his forehead. Along with the accompanying sting of pain from his exposed head injury, which was still scabbing over. 

"Whuh?" Leyon asked, his mouth now completely full as he glanced off in the direction that Steve had been looking in. His unblackened eye promptly widened less than a second later and then... 

"Uh... What is it?" He asked after a loud gulp. 

"It's _Jamie_, you pointy-headed idiot!" Steve answered, just before flinging himself from atop his crate and almost knocking it over as he half-ran, half-hobbled his way towards the hangar entrance. Leyon, oddly enough, wasn't really _that_ far behind, though he was still gobbling ramen the entire way. 

"Hey! Jamie!" 

For a few seconds, nothing. Hameros was so occupied with lugging around whoever was on his shoulder that he barely even noticed anyone calling his name at all. Finally though, the youth'd found an empty place and been given permission to set aforementioned lump-of-human-mass down, doing just that before straightening back up. 

When he turned towards Steve, the former Blitz Team owner felt his blood run cold. 

The look in Jamie's eyes was like little else he had ever seen. It wasn't really tortured, and it wasn't weepy and angst-filled. It wasn't even relieved either, it was simply apathetic. 

Considering that the last time Jamie and Steven had seen each other, those same eyes had been filled with nothing short of horrified concern, Steve felt almost as disturbed now as he had when Leena mentioned that her kidnapping at the hands of a psychotic Gojulas wasn't even worth worrying over. In a short-lived panic, he tried to slow himself down and instead stumbled a few paces before finally crashing to a halt- 

Or, at least... He would've. If Jamie hadn't calmly put out his hands and somehow stopped the Doc right in his tracks by catching him squarely across either shoulder. 

"_Jamie_," Steve sputtered out again, short of breath as he wrapped his arms around the boy and tried to squeeze him until his ribs popped. The only response he got was a pat on the back and- 

"How are you, Steve?" Hameros asked a bit _too_ formally. With that, Steve set him down and put his hands on the youngster's shoulders. 

"I-I-I-... Damnit, it's not important right now," Steve managed to conclude. "What happened to you since you left the base?" He asked, cutting straight to the point rather uncharacteristically. He didn't know how to explain it, but there was something _missing_ from Jamie's eyes... 

And in all honesty, it scared the hell out of him. 

"... A lot. Of stuff," Jamie replied with a shrug, prompting Steve to shake him around like some kind of bobblehead doll. By now, Leyon had arrived. 

"_Like_?" Steve asked. 

"Stuff," Jamie answered. 

"_What kind of stuff, Jamie_? I need to know!" 

There was a pause. A tense, uneven one as Leyon seemed to inch over to where Jamie's former humanoid luggage now lay. 

Then, finally, Jamie spoke. His voice was cold, blunt and straight to the point in a way that made Steven's spine went to curl. 

"I've killed people. A lot of them. And I also killed the Wild Eagle." 

Steve's hands involuntarily clenched. 

"Then I went home. Then I met a bunch of crazy people and killed a mutant Ultrasaurus. Then we came here," he pointed out, finally reaching up and prying Tauros' hands from his shoulders. 

"Now if you'll excuse me," he said, slinking back a step or two and then speaking up with a nervous sounding voice. "I'm gonna go find a rec-room and lay down. It's been a long morning." 

And with that, the former junior tactician of the Blitz Team turned away and walked off, passing right by two rows of wounded and dying patients without even looking at them. A minute or two later, he had arrived at a door out of the hangar and into Gyran's underground, then vanished from sight all together. 

Steve simply stood there, staring. Until Leyon spoke up, that is... 

"Isn't this Leyla Tsun?" He asked, poking the unattended girl in the side with his foot. Steve turned to look and then blinked several times before replying. 

"Yeah, actually..." 

Followed by: 

"Wait... How the heck do you know who Leyla Tsun is?" He asked, staring at Leyon now. 

The pointy-headed ramen addict shrugged, then pointed at his own head with one finger. 

"_Hello_! Mad scientist here," he commented. "'Sides, she was in Evil Scientist Digest. Somethin' about 'exploring genetic disruptions in Ancient Zoidians brought on by'... Something-blah," he explained, just before stepping back and dumping the rest of the ramen into his mouth. He didn't even bother to chew it this time. 

"... Wait a minute... There's an Evil Scientist Digest?" Steve asked, the scabs and bleeding on his forehead looking remarkably similar to a misshapen WTF. 

"... _Duh_," Leyon replied incredulously.

* * *

It had been almost twenty minutes since the initial order was given from the local chain of command, but at last, the lot of them were finally reunited. Mostly. A single Zoid was still missing from the group, but for the most part... 

"Everyone come out unscathed?" Their own head honcho asked, his voice sounding surprisingly unconcerned. After all, see the end of the world often enough and have life as you know destroyed repeatedly within the span of a few short months and one tends to grow a bit of an immunity to these kinds of things. 

"More or less," he replied with some impatience. In truth, he'd already been inside of Gyran's war-scarred walls for the better part of an hour now. It had taken almost every ounce of patience not to just wander off and find out what in the Hell happened himself, but somehow, against virtually all odds, he'd managed it. He had sat in one specific spot and held his ground there right up until almost all of the others - not counting Jamie, who had landed somewhere else - had shown up. Not only that, but he'd also stood guard over someone else's Zoid while doing it. 

"What the hell took you guys so long, anyway?" Mark asked at last, sitting on the edge of the Fox's cockpit watching as the others arrived. 

Said-others consisted of a dinged up looking Geno Breaker, a pair of Gustavs, a white Blade Liger and a Storm Sworder, the last of which was touching down only a short distance away in order to keep clear of crashing into anything. His own Zoid, the Shadow Fox, had taken point next to a downed, smoking red Liger, its own cockpit hanging open and its pilot having long since abandoned it. 

"And why the hell are _you_ so early?" Kyle shot back as the Ivory Liger came to a halt, followed by its head bowing and its cockpit popping open. A few seconds later, both Gustavs followed suit with Terry, that gold-toothed trucker who made Mark look civilized, hopping out from Pierce's Gustav first and Abbie disembarking from his own second. Suffice to say, Mark's eyes were naturally drawn to the driver who was both female, and clad in nice, worn clothing that had _just_ the right fit and- 

_WHACK_

"_Ow_!" He let out as Kyle nonchalantly appeared from nowhere and backhanded him. 

"Stop oggling your girlfriend and tell-" 

"_No, I don't know what in the fuckshit is going on_!" Mark abruptly replied, having lost that sense of slow-motion jiggling that made life worth _living_ in the first place. 

"Ah... Then will you at least explain-" 

"Is that Leon's Blade Liger?" Pierce interjected, also popping up out of nowhere and pointing to the smoking heap behind him. She also looked a bit more excited than anything else. To this, Mark frowned, twitched, shrugged and finally nodded. 

"Yeah. He was roughed up earlier, so I had to push the thing here just to get it to move," he explained. 

"Roughed up?" Pierce asked, now looking a bit concerned. 

"Roughed up as in 'Oh, hi, my name is Leon and everyone I was working with last night got blown to fleshy little giblets, including one of the Tasker sisters! How are _you_ today?'" He answered sardonically. 

"Judging by all the wreckage, he's definately not the only one who went through Hell last night," Kyle pointed out, while Bill was finally exiting the Geno Breaker. 

"No shit, Sherlock," Mark replied bluntly. 

"Which way did he go in?" Pierce asked after a few seconds. 

"That-a-way," Mark thumbed over his shoulder in the direction of the closest bunker entrance. "Said something about wantin' to be alone though," he added as an afterthought. 

There was a pause. 

Then... 

"Tough shit," Pierce commented, just before heading off in the direction he had pointed her in. 

Another pause followed as Kat and Abbie began waving refugees out of the back of Mark's Gustav's trailers, while that weird Alistair boy set himself down on one of the antenna. Bill waved over to the Suicide Duo and promptly vanished as well, taking off in a brief sprint and then heading towards the central building. With that, both glanced off in the direction Pierce had run off in. 

"Yanno," Kyle began, scratching behind his head. "I honestly can't tell who's scarier anymore... Your girlfriend or your future in-law." 

_WHACK_

"**_OW DAMNIT!_**"

* * *

Sensation flickered across the back of his brain. Without even giving a glance, he had sent the thought through and leaned back in his seat, one foot coming up to rest on a part of the console that lacked any sensitive buttons, switches or knobs. The other was left to dangle to the floor below, just as one arm was left to hang almost lifelessly over the armrest and the other was used to prop his head up on a fist. 

_ "What's wrong?"_ Vega asked, staring at the streaks on the screen. Each one was colored a starry blue, and he knew that the reason for this was because those were stars streaking by. They were moving on the edge of the atmosphere, and at this point, it still felt remarkably odd that they were speeding along at absurd speeds yet nothing in the Foe Hammer was even vibrating. Like sitting still even though everything around you was moving at a hundred miles per second. 

** You already know**, Specular answered somberly, her talons resting at the top-back of Vega's chair and her head hunched lower than normal to avoid smacking into the ceiling. **You can hear it, can't you? **

_ "Barely. It sounds like static,"_ he answered. 

** It's the world, Vega. The world is crying out in pain**, Specular responded, her voice low and somewhat withdrawn. **It's a sound that drove many of your ancestors completely insane. **

_ "Then why am I not getting slap-happy with a shotgun?"_ Vega asked sardonically. At the same time, he let out a huff and closed his eyes. 

The bridge was dark right now. Lars had taken to the floor in a sleeping bag on a mattress of seat cushions, and the only lights came from the still-active consoles and the stars streaking by on the main screen. 

** I don't know. It could be simple dilution of the Zoidian part of your blood... Or it could be that you're just too resillient. Either way, the why is irrelevent**, she rambled out. 

_ "How much longer do you think it'll be?"_ Vega wondered. 

** However long the former Guardians see fit. **

_ "Not ones for a fixed schedule, huh?" _

** All too fixed, is more like it. **

There was a pause. Vega finally opened his eyes and glanced around, only to find that Madison wasn't in the room anymore. In fact, she hadn't been ever since he had explained things to Lars - something that he almost immediately came to regret after the geeky jack-of-all-repairs had screamed and passed out where he was standing, only to come to and immediately do it all over again before finally accepting things. Escaping Lars was something he didn't blame her for, but she had been gone for almost twelve hours now and- 

** She's near the Core. Discussing private matters with Roc. Don't bother sending Sworders, they'll just be shredded,** Specular explained with the tone of a stressed, slightly exhausted and utterly resigned mother on a roadtrip. 

Another pause followed, this one a bit more relaxed in a more fatalistic sort of way. At first, it had just been a pause between words - Vega had either forgotten to reply or Specular had last sight of what she had been saying. Then though, the pause took on a life of its own. Slowly, the air seemed to thicken until it strained him to breathe. A knot that had been building up in his neck for hours made its presence known again, stinging at his senses. All feelings of comfort in their mental link washed away, and then, finally... 

The pause broke. 

_ "We're all gonna die, aren't we?" _Vega asked, somewhere between bitter, expectant and even casual. It was like someone had dipped his heart into icewater after bathing it in napalm. 

** ... Don't ask questions that you don't want the answers to**, Specular answered after another pause. Where Vega had been a mix though, she sounded downright lifeless. 

_ "Champton's still standing, and help seems to be on the way to meet us when we arrive, but..." _

There was a fourth pause, this one every bit as foreboding as the ones before it. For neither good nor ill though, curiosity brought with it a change of subject as Vega moved to bring his other leg up onto the console. 

_ "That woman... Riese. She wasn't your first bondmate, was she?"_ He asked. 

** ... No. She wasn't**, Specular answered. **Her father was my first bondmate**, she explained in short order, giving the equivelent of a sigh before continuing. **His name was also Riese. My first memory is bursting out of my own father's chest with my siblings and hearing him crying out for me. **

_ "He died during the Endtimes, didn't he?" _

** He did. I wasn't there though. I only learned second-hand**, Specular pointed out. She was actually giving off a mental chuckle that sounded like his birth mother with four days of no sleep and too much coffee. 

_ "What happened?" _

A final pause came as Specular tilted her head down and stared at him. If she could, Vega knew that she would've probably used lasers to burn through his skull and read what he was thinking from the very electrons rushing around in his brain. As it stood though, she already had access to his thoughts, and she didn't waste much more time than it took to read them before explaining. 

** His wife was killed. His daughter had been born without an Organoid - as rare then as someone having one is now. He learned of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Zoidians and Organoids through cryogenics and decided to take it. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, every pod but the last four was taken, and we had acquired two new... Companions, by the name of Reva and Boris. Children, as old as Erisi was. When it came down to it, Riese decided to stay out and ordered me to watch over his daughter. That, for the longest time, was the last I heard of him. **

When I was asleep, my mind literally shut down... And when I awoke, the Sworders bluntly tried to flock to Erisi's mind as she was dealing with a boy named Nikalo. To try and spare her the effort, and begin my bonding with her, I took control of her powers and put them into dormancy, and I took the Sworders as well - just like I did with you. They then flooded my own mind with records of what had happened after we had all been put to rest. 

Specular seemed to take a long breath, even though she never breathed at all, and then continued. 

** Riese had been driven to the same madness that overtook most of the male population at that time. He had acquired another Zoid after his Norga had broken down - a Daemon - and taken to running alongside Fintan Hiltz and his warband. He died just before Asmodeus was subdued, though I've never had the stomach to learn how**, she finished, her voice as heavy as the air he was breathing. 

To this, Vega could do little more than nod his head and try to form a coherent thought in the blank slate that was his mind. His eyes were glazed and clouded, obvious proof that he hadn't just been hearing the story play out, he had been watching it and using Specular's narrating as a way to track his progress. Finally though, his eyes cleared and his mind managed to form a straight sentence without the words tripping up in-thought. 

_ "And Erisi ended up adopting his name as a coping mechanism,"_ he concluded. 

** Yes. It was because Nikalo was killed. He was the last person who ever heard her real name. She didn't even tell it to the man who eventually fathered several of your ancestors, **Specular pointed out.** Erisi just couldn't handle being a weak and scared little girl. So she cut her hair and took her father's name. For a while, she even pretended to _be_ him. **

At this, Vega could only say one thing... 

"I've got one of the most fucked up families on Zi, huh?" 

** ... You don't know the half of it,** Specular answered with a grim sense of amusement.

* * *

An empty locker room. A flat red bench without a back, made of metal that was inherently uncomfortable to sit on for more than the time it took to get on one's shoes and socks. Normally, he wouldn't have been sitting here at all, if not for the fact that this particular locker room played host to a row of nametags that were probably going to be burned into his memory for the rest of his life. 

Howard Franklin. Walter Hallsey. Berke Jones. Kelly Tasker. 

If nothing else, the silence of the locker room made it easy to focus so hard on it that he could actually zone out and forget that only twelve or so hours ago, he had lead them into what amounted to the fires of Hell. Sure, he hadn't expected any of them to come out alive at the start of it, but _he_ hadn't expected himself to be one of the only two survivors from the entire half-squad. In some ways, he already knew that it was flat-out ridiculous to blame himself for all of their deaths, but... 

If he had been a bit faster. A bit less cautious. A bit more impulsive. A bit less logical. 

Perhaps he could've left Chris to fend for herself for the few seconds it would've taken to ram a blade down that thing's throat or gut it with a claw. Maybe a shield ram to one leg would've put it off balance enough to save Kelly and Walter. Hell, maybe he should've just sent Kelly to pick Chris up after all. Blade Ligers were more agile than Lightning Saixes, he could've dodged around and decapitated the thing's hand and- 

And maybe if he'd left Chris to fend for herself, there would be five names belonging to people who weren't breathing anymore. Maybe if he'd been stricter to Howard, a particle beam would've struck them both. Maybe the hand would've just kept squeezing on impulse even as its power died away, and maybe there would be six names whose owners were now dead. 

Perhaps more than anything else though, he regretted- 

"Never figured you to be the brooding type," a familiar voice pointed out as two soft, squishy things plopped onto the top of his head and a pair of gloved fingers dug between his lips and pulled his mouth into an awkward looking grin. "Perk up! Smile some - you're alive!" 

Leon stared straight ahead. His right eyelid twitched a bit. 

"Heglgho, Hwierss," he greeted flatly. 

"What's up?" She asked casually, still prying his mouth open while leaning her head forward enough that she was bent over his back and staring him straight in the face. Upside down. 

"Nihshe contaksh," Leon commented blandly upon noticing that her eyes had changed from purple to an unnaturally bright green. With that, Pierce finally pried her fingers out of his mouth and straightened up behind him. A few seconds later, Tauros felt her plop down beside him from behind, then glanced sideways in time to see the woman swing around in order to face the same direction as he was. She was still wearing a pilot's outfit not unlike the one she'd had on back in Romeo City. 

"Just get here?" He asked after a few seconds more, looking back towards the lockers as he did so. 

"Yep. Looks like the town went to Hell though," she answered, still casual. 

"It did." 

"But you're alive, so why the long face?" She asked, now sounding a bit less casual, but not entirely so. Leon could only grimace before answering. 

"Four of the people I lead into combat last night died. One of them ended up losing her sister. I ordered another to die fighting," he stated bluntly, with a certain detached feeling to what he was saying. It felt kind of good to get it out like that. 

"... Oh. Sorry to hear that," Pierce replied after audibly wincing at him. "But- 

"There was nothing I could do. I know that already. I've told myself that a hundred times in the past few hours and it still hasn't made me feel any better," Leon said after cutting her off. With that, he hunched forward a bit and left his hands to clasp together between his knees. At least now, he was left to stare at the floor, as opposed to the names of the dead. "It's kinda funny, really. I thought I was like Van Fleiheit until last night. My own mother came back from the dead for a little while just to tell me she thought I was like him," he pointed out. 

"... Back from the dead?" Pierce asked with a blanked tone. At that, the woman reached over and laid a hand on his back, patting a few times. "People don't come back from the dead, Leon." 

"They did yesterday. And the night before that. Ask almost anyone left alive in this city and you'll hear about them meeting with a dead relative, friend or lover," he explained, then paused and added, "if they were alone, at least. I guess you were travelling with others and didn't get time enough to be alone, did you?" He asked. 

"No," she answered flatly. "I was stuck riding around with Jamie for most of the trip." 

At this, Leon perked up a small bit. 

"He's alive?" He asked, glancing over at her again with surprise evident on his face. 

"Yeah," she answered, shaking her head. "He's been... Out of it, kinda, but he's alive. Messed up kid, that one. Rambled about killing a guy named Will when he was asleep," she pointed out. To this, Leon only raised an eyebrow. 

"You sure that's Jamie?" 

"He's a scrawny little shrimp with spikey hair and a tan who wears clothes that're two sizes too big," she answered bluntly. 

"Yeah... That's Jamie," Leon replied. 

"That's also not important," Pierce said. "I can tell a lot's happened since Romeo." 

"You don't know the half of it." 

"Neither do you." 

There was a pause. Both of them stared at each other almost challengingly, as if whoever started to speak first would somehow be the loser in a compeitition that didn't even exist. Leon looked like death warmed over still, and Pierce looked somewhere between concerned and annoyed with him. Finally though, almost at the same time, each of them looked away and began to speak, only to stop, star and repeat several times in a row before Leon managed to get a word in. 

"You first," he said. Pierce nodded. 

"Farentown was burned to the ground even worse than this place. My uncle... My sort-of-uncle, Beck, is dead. I hooked up with Jamie, Mark, Kyle and the guy who pilots that blue Geno Breaker we fought in Romeo, then we ended up fighting a Black Liger and a cracked out Ultrasaurus. Kyle killed the Liger, Bill killed the Ultra, then we came here," she explained in short order, finally getting back around looking at him. 

"Sorry to hear about Beck," Leon replied a few seconds later. 

For a few seconds, neither of them spoke. 

"Well?" She asked expectantly. 

"I already told you everything," he answered. 

At that, Pierce changed both tact and subject by flinging an arm around Leon's shoulders and nonchalantly yanking him over to lean against her. 

"You need to stop blamin' yourself over this," she stated bluntly. "I don't know how any of 'em died, and to be honest, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that _you_ survived, and as long as you're alive, you can make sure that _they_ didn't die for nothing. Got that?" She asked. 

Leon's initial response was to squirm a bit, but unfortunately, not only was he going on zero hours of sleep and no food since yesterday's lunch, Pierce was also a whole hell of a lot stronger than she looked. Even though he tried to sit upright, pry her arm off or even just stand up all together, she was still able to hold him in place without even looking strained by it. Finally though, after almost a minute of this uncomfortable struggle, he was forced to give up all together. 

"You're a pain in the ass." 

"I know. But you still haven't answered my question," she pointed out. 

"... You're a pain in the ass," he replied. 

With that, Pierce jammed her knuckles into his scalp and noogied him to the point that he was flailing around with her arm moved up to his neck. Eventually, he had slid from the bench and was reduced to struggling on the floor before finally- 

"I got it already!" He shouted out. At that, Pierce let go and Leon was left to fall over sideways and land with an awkward thud on the floor. A few seconds later, Pierce had stood up, lifted a leg over him and wound up standing right over him, staring down like the devil incarnate with a smile to match. 

"Feeling better yet?" She asked, though it was obvious that she was probably going to beat the snot out of him if he didn't answer the way she wanted. 

"You scare the shit out of me," he answered simply. 

"Good enough," Pierce replied.

* * *

Her watch alarm dinged out that it was officially noon, and almost at the instant this happened, Sarah Obscura heard half the people in the command room jolt awake while a quarter of them slumped forward in their seats, though a few oddballs had actually fallen asleep on their feet while leaned against something or other. The remaining quarter of the officers and other volunteers were either wide awake or so exhausted that they looked like they were. In many ways, the people in the command room had gone through their own form of Hell that rivalled the kind of stress that people on the battlefield had dealt with. At least two had suffered nervous breakdowns halfway through the night and a third had actually died of a heart-attack while coordinating defenses for the Eastern sector... 

And yet, there they were. Even the ones who had passed out had done their jobs as admirably as anyone could. In a situation where they'd been hopelessly outgunned by an enemy who seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once without limit to their numbers, the lot of them had managed to keep the fight going - and keep it coordinated as well. 

"Alright," she finally sighed out, more to herself than anyone else. Without even thinking, she had swiped an empty seat and flopped down into it before rubbing both eyes with her fingertips. While she hadn't exactly been manning any specific stations during the evening, she had still been pushed to her limits and beyond several times over. Where almost everyone else had been dealing with specific tasks, Sarah Obscura had been running the show almost from start to finish. Sure, Harry had been there and he'd been her equivelent to a superior officer, but they had handled things more as equals than anything else. 

"Who here is fucking exhausted?!" She called out only half-heartedly, throwing aside any concept of manners in the process. The reply consisted of about three dozen partially slurred 'ME!'s and a few hands shooting up. 

With that, Sarah let out a yawn and cracked the knuckles in her fingers before popping her neck from left to right several times and- 

Frowning annoyedly as the comm officer shouted for her. The only one who wasn't passed out, at least. 

"What is it?" She demanded a few seconds later, having heaved up out of her chair and crossed the full width of the room in record time without even breaking into a half-jog. The comm officer had been about to speak when- 

"This is General Otto Schubaltz of the Guylos Empire," a square-jawed blonde man in an Imperial uniform stated. Almost on sight, Sarah knew she wouldn't like dealing with him. 

"Gee... How convenient for a foriegn military to show up fashionably late to do any good," she muttered out to the agreeing, but unseen, nods of the comm officer and virtually anyone else who was awake right now. "What do you want?" 

"We came to help," Schubaltz replied, green eyes narrowing slightly. Sarah could tell that the feelings of hostility were mutual. 

"Not to mention getting supplies on your way back to Imperial territory, correct?" Sarah asked shrewdly. 

"Yes," Schubaltz admitted with a flat shrug. At this, Sarah found herself liking the man a bit more. At least he was going to be an honest bastard, as opposed to a lying one. 

"Unfortunately, we're in no condition to provide any of the supplies you need right now. The city is, more or less, in ruins at the moment," she explained with a blatantly false sense of appology in her voice, only to continue. Above all, Sarah Obscura was a businesswoman who was used to dealing with people who had a tendency to underestimate her. Dealing with heads of the military wasn't much different. "_However_..." 

She paused, deliberately, allowing it to sink in before speaking again. 

"The local hangars and supply depots within Gyran's walls are still well-stocked and, as a result of last night, have plenty of room to spare," she pointed out. 

"In other words, you want us to stay long enough for you to secure yourself again, then take what we need and leave," Otto replied bluntly. 

"Perceptive for a military slug," Sarah said with a smile. 

"It's a de-" 

"And one more thing," she cut him off, just as deliberately as when she'd paused earlier. "_Do not, under any circumstances, expect special treatment during your stay_," she growled out, sneering a bit. At this, Otto let out a sigh, as if someone had just spilled coffee all over the table. 

"Typical Neutral Zone attitude," he replied blandly. "Don't worry about my soldiers. They're all good, honorable men and women and they wo-" 

"If they break any of the rules, harrass anyone or somehow worsen the situation, I'll take your balls off with my bare hands," Sarah stated. At this, Otto finally looked as if someone had flat-out slapped him. 

"... Yes, ma'am," he mumbled. 

"_Good_," she said with a smile. "Now how many ships are coming in?" 

"Three. Two Type Seven Whale Kings and one Type Eight," he answered briskly. 

"Landing areas 2, 3 and 6," she replied from memory alone. "I'll be sure to send someone to give you a tour." 

With that, Otto gave a curt nod and the screen cut off. The comm officer, who had gone from supportive to outright mortified, slowly looked up to regard her with a twitching eyelid. 

"H-he... That's..." 

"He's military. Career military at that, belonging to a foriegn power and completely removed from his traditional chain of command. With the satellite networks down, I doubt he can get any decent signals into Imperial territory right now, and even if he could, it's debatable as to whether or not anyone would be able to pick them up," she explained, softening almost visibly as she straightened up from the comm screen. "Give guys like that an inch and they'll either take two miles or feel too nervous to come within a hundred. Being a bitch is the best way to handle the situation." 

"... Oh. I guess that makes sense," the officer admitted with an exhausted shrug. 

"Damn right it does," she replied with a look that probably would've sent Leena Tauros running.

* * *

"Next off... Next! Okay... One at a time, women and children first! Elderly come second, men and young people last!" A woman's voice, all too polite for his own taste, rang in the background. It was that Abbie woman, the one who had taken him in when he was in a daze. She was nice, of course. Kindhearted, very gentle... But far, far too polite. A bit too nurturing as well, but with the state the world was in today, he didn't really mind getting lavished with a bit of extra attention when most of the other children in the Neutral Zone were lucky to even get two meals a day anymore. Perhaps that was why that Katherine woman - and everyone else who was even remotely normal - seemed afraid of him. He was too damned mature for a boy his age and... 

Well, there was the matter of that little death threat back in Farentown. 

Shrugging to himself, he looked back towards the vast rows of hangars and buildings, watching as Zoid after Zoid trekked back in. Most were either on their last leg or close to it, but two in particular seemed almost completely unscathed and- 

_ "Two are here, two are on the way and the fifth is missing,"_ he thought to himself. 

"Mark, gimme a hand with this one... Be careful, she's pregnant! Okay, easy does it... There we go," he heard as both of his adoptive parents helped down a woman who was probably loaded with triplets. He didn't need to see her to know that, it was just a lucky guess. All of his guesses were lucky like that though, some more than others. 

Terry was the only one really helping them, unfortunately. Kyle and Katherine had wandered off to find local officials and inform them of their arrival, not to mention meet up with Stigma Stoller. Bill was... Elsewhere, of course. And Jamie, he reasoned, was probably taking a shower or falling asleep on a bench somewhere by now. Or he was in the airport. Pierce was off doing Piercely things to that Tauros guy he'd heard about too. 

But at least Terry was reliable. Not as reliable as his adopted father, crazy though the man was, but reliable enough to be useful. 

_ "And here you come," _he thought suddenly, feeling the tell-tale tingle underneath his scalp. Compulsively, he wanted to reach up and scratch at it, but that never did any good. He reasoned that the feeling, and the eerie sensations of almost always being right, would fade away with age. He knew he was right about that much, at least. Regardless of what happened, he was always going to be right about that much. 

A few seconds ticked by as Abbie hassled Terry about dropping something and Mark could be heard complaining about his foot. Then, he felt it. The ground rattled so subtly that anyone not paying attention would've missed it with ease. A few seconds more passed, and then he heard it too. The sound of jet turbines big enough to swallow a four story apartment building, accompanied by the shortlived view of aquatic shapes in the distance. 

Slowly and with a grace that was almost intoxicating to behold, the three of them split up. The smaller two hovered sideways and vanished out of sight, but the largest of the trio let out a loud, echoing cry and began to lower straight down in the vicinity of the airport. 

_ "In the best of what's available to you. You'll always be like that though," _he thought to himself, hands slowly leaving the pockets of those khaki shorts that Abbie had given him before Farentown burned. From there, it was only a matter of taking a shrewd look over his shoulder before looking forward again. 

_ "May as well. Not like she'll be able to stop me." _

With that, he took off. There weren't any dramatics. He didn't stop and wave, and he didn't make it a point to look inconspicuous. He just ran for it, aiming right at a back-alleyway. A few seconds later, he heard Abbie's voice finally calling out, followed by Mark's own and then a shortlived set of orders from her before she had taken off after him. Unfortunately for Abbie, it was a chase she couldn't hope to succeed at - not because he somehow physically outperformed her, but because he was just too agile and small for her. 

In the alleyways, there were plenty of sharp turns to make between buildings, and while Abbie had about two feet and the slight topheaviness that accompanied her girl-next-door physique, he was able to corner on a dime and not lose much speed. Not only did she have to compensate for the weight of her chest though, she also lacked a proper bra for distance running, making it even more of a hassle for her. After the first three turns, he had more or less lost her all together, even though he kept knocking over trash cans and hurling pipes aside in his runs so that she had a trail to follow. 

It took him almost thirteen minutes of running through alleyways before he came to the landing pad. He had been able to guide himself there by the growing vibrations of the ground and the ever increasing, then decreasing noise of the engines cutting off. After he had arrived though, without even breaking a sweat, it was simply a matter of waiting. Either Abbie would catch up... 

Or he would disembark from the Whale King. 

As expected, the latter event happened first. 

Five minutes after landing, the Whale King's mouth opened to reveal about two dozen men and women, some of them armed, and, just as he had expected, a single child, walking alongside the head of the group and holding a woman's hand. 

_ "I guess his father would be able to bend the rules enough to bring his family around with him. Stupid habit, but probably reasonable given the current environment," _he thought, waiting patiently alongside the door into a fighter hangar. 

Moments ticked by before another group, this one clearly lead by a woman in her late thirties to early forties, appeared on the landing pad. Not only was this group larger, but almost all of them had come packing weapons. 

_ "A show of force to try and cow the potential invader into submission," _he mused, taking notice of the fact that the child had been forgotten for the moment. His mother and father, even his bodyguards, seemed preoccupied with the meeting of potential force and potential force. This afforded the kid a few split seconds to perform that vanishing act that almost all children seemed to know. With as much patience as a fisherman, he watched the boy slip between guards and casually walk off to try and explore what must have been an 'exciting' place. 

Not that there was much special to be found on the landing pad of an airport. Even so, this gave him the opportunity he knew would be coming. With the mental calculation of a predator, he took it. 

Seconds trickled by as the other boy finally noticed him, leaving the two to approach each other. As it happened, he was able to spot that cunning, malicious little streak in the boy's eyes that he knew would someday lead to havoc. A lethal ambition waiting to find an outlet and take hold. It really wasn't difficult to spot, after all... 

It was easy to see things like this. Even in a broken mirror. 

Eventually though, eternity wore away and the two were left within speaking distance of each other. Where he looked as malignant as ever though, this kid... 

Looked absolutely normal. That's the impression he would've had if he was an adult, at least. 

"Hello," the boy greeted him, holding out a hand. "My name is Christoph Siegfried Schubaltz," he introduced himself, smiling so brightly that it made him wonder just how sheltered the kid was. 

For the longest time though, he didn't take the boy's hand. He didn't even speak to him. After a few seconds, Christoph seemed to notice this and lowered his hand accordingly, head tilting ever so slowly until it was forward and to the side. 

It really was like looking into a broken mirror though. If not for the Schubaltz family's distinct mark on his left cheek, his paler skin and the golden color of his eyes and hair, the two could've practically been twins. They were the exact same height, bore the same facial features, had eyes that were shaped similarly and even the same lips and nose. Maybe the eternal look of death in his eyes made them look more different than they should have, but that difference would fade with time. 

Finally though, as he heard Abbie shouting to him while Christoph's mother approached, he decided that it was time to introduce himself as well. 

"My name is Alistair Edward Smith," he said, watching the other boy start to smile. For some unknown reason, he felt a small glimmer of satisfaction in knowing that he would crush that smile into oblivion. 

"One day, I'm going to kill you," he stated as a fact. 

Christoph's eyes widened so much that even his pupils enlarged. The smile on his face died into a sagging mouth as his nostrils flared visibly. Alistair could almost see the individual hairs on his head standing on end, but he didn't draw any real joy out of it. Hollow satisfaction, yes, but no real joy. Not enough to smile, or even squint his eyes. 

A few seconds later, tears began to fall from Christoph's eyes and he felt Abbie's hands clenching down on his shoulders as she tried to forcefully turn him about. She was too exhausted from running to succeed though, and the matter was compounded as Christoph's mother, a tall blonde woman with milky skin and sky blue eyes, appeared behind him with a matching movement. Without a word, she furiously grabbed Christoph and glared at both Alistair and Abbie. 

"I'm so sorr-" Abbie began to appologize, but the woman cut her off. 

"_What kind of sorry excuse for a mother are you_?!" She demanded. At that, Alistair cut back in before Abbie, now blushing furiously, could retort. 

"She's the kind who notices when her son runs off before strangers can threaten his life," he stated blandly, looking up from Christoph to the boy's mother. 

"_Shut up, you little hellspawn_!" the woman demanded, glaring hot death at him before speaking again. "Private! Execute that boy for-" 

"For what?" He asked, literally feeling Abbie's heart skip a beat through her palms. He wasn't panicked either. Only calm. Like ice. "Even in your own homeland, Mrs. Schubaltz, nobility doesn't give you the right to senselessly murder children who, at worst, deserve a spanking and time alone in a corner. And besides, I would bet that it would thoroughly kill your husband's career if one of his own soldiers killed a boy and a woman in full view of the default leader of this settlement, not to mention at least two-hundred fully functional security cameras," he pointed out before turning his attentions towards the soldier in question. The man was already lowering his gun on the spot. 

"And you? Do you really want to jeopardize your own career like this? Not to mention your conscience. You're a good man, aren't you?" He asked simply. 

With that, the soldier nodded slowly and turned towards Christoph's mother. 

"This way, ma'am. We'll step up security and make sure this... _Incident_ doesn't repeat itself," the man said, waving her and her son along in the process. 

As the trio departed though, Alistair managed to catch one last glimpse of Christoph's face. The blonde boy had craned his head around in what Abbie was taking to be fear, but... 

Alistair could see that humiliated glint crying out for revenge in his eyes. 

_"Yes,"_ he thought, _"someday, I'm going to kill you. I promise it."_

And with that, Alistair took a few steps forward, pulling himself free before turning around in time to see Abbie shedding a few tears in shock. 

"It's okay, Mother," he said, acknowledging for the first time that she really _was_ his mother. "Let's go back to Mark and Terry now," he suggested, only to recieve a sound slap on the face. While his cheek stung, any emotional pain that she might've hoped to inflict as punishment failed to materialize. Not only had she become exhausted during the chase, she was also mentally exhausted from what had just happened, but even so... 

"_Don't you ever make threats like that again, Alistair_!" She yelled at him, trembling with what he took to be a mixture of fear, anger and... 

A lot more maternal concern than she ever expected to have. It almost made him smile. 

"It's okay, Mother. I won't," he said, and meant it. 

After all, he didn't ever make threats. He simply stated the facts. 

_ End Chapter Thirteen_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Merry Christmas, people! Belatedly, but still! Happy New Year's too, while I'm at it.

Oh, and as an aside: The only scenes in this chapter that _weren't_ easy to write were Mark and Kyle's, and Leon and Pierce's. I want to bludgeon all four of them with blunt objects. Leon and Pierce more so, since I despise writing romance. Or anything close to it.

That said, I hope neither scene read like cardboard.

Oh, and there are many Plot Hints™ pertaining to the future in Alistair's scene. _Very_ many. I'm not saying what they are, but when they appear, you're going to want to stab yourself in the groin for missing them, as they'll be rather blatant in hindsight. That scene also established the beginnings of a future part of any possible sequels to TOD, assuming I don't decide to go 'heyfuckit, I'll just blow up the world. BYE BYE!' >.>

Anyway, commentary'll be up in the usual place. Sh33p out. 


	14. The Gathering

**Foreword:** Soundtrack below.

**Scene One:** E.S. Posthumus - Antissa  
**Scene Two:** KoRn - All Alone I Break  
**Scene Three:** Guns 'n' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle  
**Scene Four:** Zoids - Zoid Eve's Theme(The End of Confucious... I think)  
**Scene Five:** .hackSIGN - A Stray Child  
**Scene Six:** Gundam SEED - Wheel of Destiny  
**Scene Seven:** Evanescence - My Immortal

* * *

** Tides of Darkness**  
The Gathering

It felt like an eternity, but at long last, the clock hit seven and Harry Champ could almost _feel_ time shifting and creaking over to late afternoon. He hadn't slept since... Well, it had been at least yesterday. Somewhere in-between barking out orders, screaming at Sarah, running down a hallway of civilians, having his back set on fire, going into combat and detonating a pair of ballistic missiles right on top of his head, he had kind of lost track of minor details like sleep, going to the bathroom, eating, not breaking an arm, a leg and several ribs... 

But hey, why lose track of life by getting caught up in useless details like that? 

At present, Harry was laid up in a hospital bed, as opposed to being flung onto a floor and given quick fix medical help. The people who'd carried him to the in-fortress hospital wouldn't tolerate letting him wait, and while Harry would've preferred to either wait it out like a common grunt, or get chucked into one of the all-too-expensive healing tubes right off the bat, he really couldn't help but enjoy the prospects of getting to lay there and be a blob of human flesh for once. The past months, even without the added havoc of last night, had taken a toll on his body and mind that probably would've crushed most people into a fine bloody red powder. 

In that regard, Harry was glad that he only had a few broken limbs and some ribs to contend with. Not to mention the burns on his back. Those would probably scar in a bad way, but at least it was something he could brag to Leena about and- 

The door in cracked open. 

_ "Speak of the devil,"_ Harry thought with a ragged, dumb looking smile on his face as a protesting nurse showed the way in for his first, and probably only, real visitor. The only people allowed in right now were family and anyone with a rank approaching that of what he'd handed to Sarah Obscura. That Leena had managed to get in without blowing anything to Hell and back was a true testament to how far she'd come since they had first met. 

"I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong," she pointed out breezily, causing Harry's stomach to sink. "I ended up having to put a hand through a desk to make them let me in." 

"... Well, it beats shooting someone," Harry replied with a sage nod. At least nobody had been maimed. Terrified perhaps, but not maimed. That was always a good thing. 

"That was brave of you, Harry," Leena commented without even batting an eye in his direction. Instead of sitting down on the edge of the bed, snuggling up alongside him and being a tease or a flirt, or a cute little wench who would drive him insane with joy, Harry Champ's girlfriend simply stood beside his bed and stared right over him. She was looking almost expectantly out of the window. "Stupid, suicidal and desperate, but also brave. At least this time, you got blown up for something worth while," she said, smiling a little. It was only thanks to the orange and red light of the setting sun that he actually noticed how many scars had been etched and fried into her face. The fact that she was wearing a CDF jumpsuit and combat boots didn't exactly help for how aged it made her look. 

Though the glasses certainly helped cuten her appearance dramatically. If Harry had thought Leena to be cute in that 'I'LL RIP YOUR FACE OFF AND USE IT AS TOILET PAPER!!!' way before the scars and the glasses, he now thought she looked cute in the more traditional 'Fringe' kind of way. 

"I thrive on being blown to smithereens," he replied after a few seconds of staring. The old Leena probably would've butchered him for looking at her like that. The new one just rolled her eyes in a joking way. 

"I noticed. You have to be the biggest masochist I've ever met," she commented amusedly. 

"Why not have a seat?" Harry asked abruptly, changing the subject without a second thought. 

"Because I'm waiting for something. Or someone, whichever comes first," Leena answered with a far away look in her eyes. Harry almost automatically felt a tinge of jealousy for whatever it was, but he also had the maturity to push it aside. 

"Who or what is it?" He asked, using his unbroken arm to grab the bed controls and incline it enough that he could sit up. 

"I'm not quite sure. It's just..." 

One of those melodramatic pauses he'd become accustomed to experiencing while speaking to other people. One that Leena herself almost never had at all. 

"Lately... I've been noticing things. Patterns, you could call them," she explained, pausing again and then speaking up once more. "Well, not really patterns since there's no true order in them. It's chaotic, but if you look closely enough-" 

Something reflected off of her glasses. A distant twinkle of silver, tinted orange at the edge thanks to the sun's glow. At that, whatever Leena was going to say, she dropped like a stone. Instead, she sighed. 

"Whatever it is, Schubaltz must've noticed it too. Probably sooner than I did. Either way, it's a moot point and fate's calling," she said, finally looking down on him with the teasing smile he had been expecting. The one she'd often give him when she had wanted money from him. 

"Don't break anything else while I'm gone, ya bum," she ordered sternly, just before doing an about face and leaving. 

Stunned, Harry couldn't even muster up the energy for a proper WTF Look. Instead, he just shook his head. 

_ "I'll probably never understand you,"_ he thought. _"But I guess I don't even have to either."_

* * *

He had gone to a rec-room. He had laid down. He hadn't moved from there aside from the odd urge to get food, and the even odder compliance of his body to get and eat it. It wasn't that food was alien to him or anything - he wouldn't be fifteen going on sixteen if it was. It was more that he just hadn't felt like eating, drinking, sleeping, being awake or... Very much at all over the past week or three. Sure, he'd had his uppity moments, but for the most part, the only real reason he hadn't wasted away was because others had been around to keep him going. 

For whatever reason, he had finally found himself giving in to hunger that he hadn't even noticed before. That alone was cause for curiosity. 

_ "It's not like I didn't ask for it,"_ he reasoned blandly. The flash of his hand plunging through his other self's chest went before the thought, and again after it, this time from a different angle. It was a visual he hadn't been able to escape whenever he slept, and by now, the shock value had worn off. For that matter, so had the guilt. Anymore, the only thing that bothered him about it was that he had done it at all. It didn't wear on his conscience and it didn't numb him at the core, it just left him somewhat disturbed. 

_ "I smell like three week old sock,"_ he thought a few seconds later, having finished his meal a full five or six minutes earlier. The rec-room was empty. Nobody had come in or left it since he had arrived, and given the state of the locals, it was doubtful that anyone would be coming anytime soon either. 

He should've bothered taking a shower. After all, there wasn't any harm in doing so. He wasn't really needed by anyone right now. He didn't have anything else to do. So why not grab a towel and wander off for a nice, warm shower? 

Because something itched at his spine. It didn't feel like when Will was around either. It was more like a nagging feeling that he needed to be somewhere else. Somewhere open. Without walls. Only belatedly, he realized that he felt trapped in here. He couldn't see the sky, the air smelled stale and the lighting sucked. 

_ "No point in showering,"_ he concluded at last, feeling the urge to run outside and gasp for all the fresh air he could get. Even then, the rational part of his mind followed the first conclusion with a second: _"Everything around here just smells like soot, blood and gunpowder. Not like anyone's gonna notice if I have some B.O. going on or anything,"_ he thought. In an uncharacteristic manner, he actually relished going so long without cleaning himself up. It felt like he had shrugged off a few of his older obsessive habits - like cleaning things until they all but sparkled. 

No amount of scrubbing was going to make this city sparkle again in his lifetime. Granted, Jamie didn't expect to see his next birthday with the shape the world was in right now, but he had a hunch that even if he grew to be a hundred, Champton, and all of Zi for that matter, would still be wearing scars from the reign of chaos it had endured so far. 

"I'm gonna go outside," he said aloud, even though there wasn't anyone to actually hear him say it. Pausing long enough to pull his white gloves off and casually fling them onto the rec-room table, Jamie was soon headed for the door without a second of hesitation. 

Like so many doors in his life were supposed to, this particular door swung open without any difficulty. It was ironic, in a detached way, that Jamie had always expected the hard parts of life to be physical. Instead of having to beat a door into opening with his fists and a tool he probably would've had no clue how to properly use, he had always found himself struggling with doors that weren't even real. He had strained, and almost died, in the bid to open the door to becoming a good pilot, and in doing so, he had simply unleashed his own antithesis in the form of the Wild Eagle. He had struggled against that door for a while too, and then when he had broken it down... 

He had lost purpose. Now he had opened the door to purpose, but it wasn't enough. Love was a joke - aside from that failed bid at a serious relationship with Leyla, he'd never had any luck with that kind of thing at all. He was probably lucky that he wasn't going to die a virgin. Helping others was nice, but it left little of the personal and intellectual gain he craved. It was like dumping a cup of water on a campfire every few hours and expecting it to go out. 

Regardless of his internal strife, or even more serious lack thereof, Jamie had eventually strolled his way out of the rec-room and into a lobby, never noticing the fact that the elevator doors behind him were opening. He also failed to notice the girl in the jumpsuit who had arrived only a few moments before him.

* * *

"**_MRS. OBSCURA!!!_**" Someone screamed out loudly over the blare of the thirty or so alarms that happened to be within earshot of her. At some level, even as she outwardly cussed like a sailor on shore leave, Sarah had to feel thankful for the sudden escape from having to personally show the General and his rotten family around the fortress as she'd offered upon his arrival. 

Everywhere else though, her profanity basically summed it up. Without even bothering with the formality of telling Schubaltz that she was, very obviously, needed elsewhere, Sarah had bolted for the nearest door with the screaming officer in tow. Within three seconds, said-door had flipped open, both of them had passed through it and afterward, it had slammed shut so loudly that she could almost _hear_ Schubaltz's wife calling her an unsophisticated brute with a shoddy command style. 

That alone made the alarms worth while. 

"What is it?" She demanded now that they had gotten into a hallway that lead directly to an air-traffic command room that could double as a makeshift central command post. They had already begun walking towards it when the door they'd come through flung open again to reveal that Schubaltz was following them. Without guards. Either the man was nuts or brilliant to try tagging along at this point, but that didn't matter right now. 

"There's an incoming... _Something_ from up-north, ma'am," the officer stated at an almost frantic, nerve-addled pace. "It's shooting down from what looks like low-orbit at... Shit, we can't even tell how fast it's going since the scanner pings on it aren't consistent but-" 

"I get the picture. Have you tried shooting it down?" She asked abruptly, even as Schubaltz caught up with them and flanked the officer's other side. 

"We _tried_, but none of the leftover missile systems could get a lock and the only Zoid we've got airborn right now is an SCO-class Pteras that's only got its nose gun," the officer replied. Judging from the fact that he was almost sweating bullets, Sarah was willing to guess that they had definately tried everything to gun it down by now, and had probably only come for her when they'd run out of options. After all, it wasn't really prudent to interrupt a meeting like that one she'd been in if it could be resolved without her. 

Assuming that this could be resolved at all. 

A few seconds ticked by before the trio practically blasted through the open doorway and into the air-traffic control room, which still had a few of its windows missing and a couple holes in the ceiling from the nights before. Bloodstains were also burnt into the floor, but the machinery in it - computers, communications systems and the like - was all still fully functional. 

"ETA?" Sarah demanded without even blinking as the officer stumbled behind and Schubaltz assumed the ever annoying 'hey, I'm really an UNASSUMING MILITARY GENIUS! FEELFREETOCONSULTME!!!' pose somewhere behind her. 

"Thirt- fourt-... Shit... Ten sec- _Eight_," one of the radar observers sputtered out in a failing bid to keep track of the incoming object. Without even looking at the poor girl, Sarah had stormed over to a window, looked out and spotted it herself. 

It was like watching some sort of hybrid between a comet, a lightning bolt and a fireworks display on acid all at once. With grace, speed and precision that, quite frankly, should've liquified the internal organs of any human pilot, the thing halted suddenly in mid-air. Then it bolted sideways, straight down and back on course, leaving the SCO Pteras to fly right through its former path with its nose gun blazing and its oversized Radome spinning madly. 

"_Open fire_!" She shouted out, even though common sense ruled that it was futile. None of Gyran's remaining air-defense guns were positioned properly to track it. None of the missile systems _could_ track it and no amount of manual aiming was going to stop it. 

A second later, it was over. 

Sarah felt her heart skip at least three beats. Her breath caught in her throat and one could probably see a few hairs on her head turn as white as snow. 

The object, a bright silver streak of light, came to within spare feet of the landing pad at speeds that should've sent shockwaves throughout the landing zone. 

And then it stopped. Not only did it stop, it warped. It coalesced first into a shining, sparking and spinning sphere of what looked like silver lightning, then molded into the shape of a hammerhead. A few seconds later, the glow faded out entirely to reveal the shape of a completely ordinary, utterly plain Hammerhead II that had Stigma Stoller's company logo plastered on its side in faded red-and-purple. 

"... What in the hell?" Otto sputtered out from behind her, having stepped forward by now. Sarah didn't know why, but her heart skipped _another_ beat as she stared at it. 

And then, as Otto spoke out for the second time, the realization hit her. 

"That's _Vega's_ transport..." 

A lesser woman would've screamed and fainted on the spot. Sarah simply whipped into an about-face and took off in the fastest run that her legs could ever hope to manage. Without so much as a word, she headed through the door and made a break for the nearest elevator to ground level.

* * *

"We're here." 

A simple two-word sentence, composed of four syllables, eight letters, a space and a period. In peaceful times, it was the kind of statement usually said by exhausted parents with the word 'finally' included. Said-parents would've been exhausted by hours, maybe even days at a time, spent driving through the deserts both on and off of the highway, with the additional toll taken by their children asking whether or not they had arrived, how close they were and when they would arrive. Typically, these questions would come on the order of every two to fifteen minutes. Occasionally, it would precurse shouting matches, temper tantrums and threats of pulling over. 

Instead, the statement made by Lars Torson had been greeted with a nonchalant, almost lazy looking shrug. And then, as the mechanic-turned-transport pilot had wiped his eyes, yawned and started trying to contact the local air traffic control network in order to avoid being bombed on the landing pad, Vega had left him. He'd stood up from his chair, turned towards the door in and out of the bridge room and he'd left. With Specular in tow, as always. 

Normal children were supposed to ask those questions. He didn't. He didn't do a lot of the things that normal eleven, twelve and even thirteen year olds do. He didn't cuss excessively, didn't live on soda and sugar and he didn't _try_ to act five years older in the interests of seeming cool. Instead of all of that, Vega Obscura seemed to carry himself like someone who was ten years older than he was, with the clouded and shadowed eyes of someone decades older than _that_. He didn't _act_ more mature, he really _was_ more mature. 

In some ways, he had to wonder whether or not that fact was starting to disturb his former team-mate. Maybe it even frightened him to an extent, but Vega couldn't really say. Not because he couldn't just find a way to yank the information out of him, but because he had the decency not to. 

Regardless, it had only taken the pair a minute or so of stalking down a narrow hallway, turning once and coming to a stop before they had arrived at their next destination. It was a plain door, unmarked and presently shut. Without Vega even lifting a finger though, it had opened in the snap of a finger. 

He found himself facing the collarbone of a man he'd once looked up to almost like an older brother. The months and the violence had humanized the blonde now, made him less unbeatable and more real. The joker's gleam in his eyes, the one that took nothing seriously enough, was gone now. It had been replaced by something even more bland and weathered than his own. To an extent, he still looked up to the man standing in front of him, but only as far as he had to lean his head back to make eye contact. 

"We're here," Vega stated simply. 

"I know," Bit replied with an empty tone of voice and the blank look to match it. 

"They're expecting us," Vega pointed out. 

"I know," Bit replied again. 

He still hadn't even bathed since the carnage in Nyx. Granted his actual body was clean now, but his clothes were still all but dyed red, black and brown in human blood, Hell's ash and his own dried up vomit. The stench had been so bad that it had practically canceled itself out. 

"Aren't you going to come and meet everyone?" Vega asked. By now, a gold-edged silhouette with green eyes had appeared behind the blonde pilot, towering over him like some kind of monster. If it wasn't Zeke, he would've been afraid. Vaguely. 

"Why bother?" Bit asked in return, his hands slowly edging up to his pockets. He didn't bother giving a reason. 

"I'll drag you. Kicking and screaming. Again," Vega stated as a fact, as opposed to an idle threat. 

For a long couple of moments, he could practically _feel_ the pressure of Bit's eyes sizing him up. Physically speaking, he had the presence of mind to know that he would've been killed in the opening blows if he tried the direct approach of beating the blonde senseless. Outside of that though, both of them had the presence of mind to know that it would've been mutually fatal, considering that Vega had the Micro-Sworder trump card lying around and a willingness to use it. 

Finally though, Bit shrugged. 

"Fine," he said. 

With that and nothing else, the two of them, with Zeke and Specular bringing up the rear, had made a byline for the nearest exit. Another minute ticked by before the sound of the door's pressure locks gasping open hit his ears. Another few seconds after that, the door had expanded outward, its hinges squeeking before it finally flipped open all together. With a clang, it swung into the side of the ship to reveal the landing pad and the inside of Gyran Fortress' ancient walls at sunset. The stairs were already unfolding by the time that the doors of the building in front of them had slipped open. 

People were coming to greet them. He'd expected as much. 

With a casual wave that was as energetic as he could muster, Vega began to step down the stairs and towards the pad below with Bit not far behind him. Only a small number had come to see their arrival, but he knew at a glance that every single one of them was here for some kind of reason that they themselves didn't even understand. 

It was a moment of transition. That was the only way he could really have thought to describe it. 

_ "The gang's all here,"_ he thought, but didn't say, with a passingly amused look. 

Jamie Hameros, the Tauros family, Pierce Summers, Sarah Obscura and Leyon Martin. Of the group, only Pierce seemed even remotely out of place since she wasn't exactly related to anyone present by a decade or more of friendship or a blood connection of some sort. 

"So where's Stoller?" He asked at the instant his feet hit the ground, even as a tingle on the back of his neck informed him that another person had popped up to see what was going on. A blonde woman in a half-tattered jumpsuit, watching from a suitable distance after having exited a nearby hangar. 

The convenience of this was so astounding that he wanted to wring someone by the neck. 

Unfortunately, the silence of everything was also so heavy that nobody seemed willing to break it after he'd spoken. His mother was on the verge of running up and screaming at him while simultaneously breaking his midsection in a bearhug, the current and former members of the Blitz Team were all gaping at their blood encrusted comrade and Leyon was looking at the descending Organoids with eyes that bordered on having pink hearts in them. 

By now, a second tingle had alerted him to another new arrival. Another woman, no less. This time, he distinctly recognized her as being Naomi Fluegel. She'd probably been passing by in much the same way as the woman before her, not even aware of whatever force it was dragging her towards the gathering that was taking place. 

"Where's Brad?" Bit finally asked. Nearby, he could practically feel Naomi tensing up, and he could see something unreadable flickering through the eyes of both Jamie and Leena. He, of course, already knew. 

"Brad's dead," Vega answered without even turning to face the Liger pilot. "I'm just glad to see everyone else is intact," he forced himself to say, even though he actually meant it. 

Whatever their individual reactions to the news were, the silence that hung overhead completely shattered after that. Vega, to no small surprise, wound up being grabbed into a near body-breaker of a hug by his mother, accompanied by a horde of questions that made him want to shrink back into Specular's insides and bolt for the Fury. Bit wound up scratching the back of his head with a vacant look and trying to gauge everyone else. 

Leyon seemed unphased. Pierce just laid a hand on Leon's shoulder to try and distantly console him. Jamie looked on the edge of either throwing up or laughing his head off. Leena didn't even show a sign of surprise beyond a grim headshake and Steve just rubbed his eyes. Nearby, Naomi had sighed aloud and without even stopping by, walked off. 

After all, it was just further confirmation of what a dead man had already told her. 

It took a few minutes after that for the center of attention to break apart and shift in every direction. Steve and Leyon took to harrassing the bewildered looking Organoids(who refused speaking to them), Leon and Pierce wandered off, Jamie took to the edge of the group and somewhere, in the midst of it all... 

Leena wound up wrapping her arms around Bit and hugging him. There wasn't anything romantic about it. It was just a hug. It was almost sibling-like in a way, and it was the first time since Nyx that Vega'd had a firsthand view of Bit starting to become emotional. 

It hadn't been pronounced. Just a few series of trembles and an increasingly taut face. The blonde hadn't even hugged her back either, but he'd tolerated it and that was a start. 

"It's okay now," she had said to him without prying into whatever it was that had dyed him in blood and grime. "Whatever it is, it's okay now. You're among friends and you can start healing now," she assured him, always speaking too low for anyone else but Vega to hear. Micro-Sworders were useful like that. 

"No," he had replied in about the same voice, though he was staring right over her. Right over everyone, in fact, given that he was staring straight up. "It's not." 

"We've got a lot to talk about," Vega had finally managed to cut in before things could get too emotional. Leena seemed to either take the cue or have a pre-planned cut-off point, because at the exact moment that he'd said it, she drew away from Bit and nodded to him. They seemed to be the only ones paying enough attention to realize that the blonde was like a powder keg right now. Too much contact when he wasn't ready and someone might end up dead. 

Sarah seemed utterly disappointed. Even a bit offended, given that he wasn't even addressing her when he'd spoken. 

"What've you been doing since I last saw you?" She finally asked him, clear and blunt like a commander addressing a soldier. Oddly enough, or perhaps so normally that _that_ was what made it feel strange, this drew his attention to her more so than anything else. 

"Organoids. Kale. Nyx. Vilhelm Rommel. Zoid Adam. Asmodeus," Vega replied with a series of well-picked keywords. 

Almost on cue, everyone but Leena seemed to pale a few shades. Bit in particular. Leyon and Steve were only a few steps behind him. 

"Like I said... We've got a lot to talk about."

* * *

It was odd. Once upon a time, the dark hadn't scared him. He had thought himself to be brave, talented, smart and all those things that stupid little braggarts aspired to. The dark hadn't frightened him. Then, for a while, it did. Where once, as a boy, he'd been able to laugh at the dark and mock any who feared it, time had brought change. Change in mindset, physiology and understanding. For a while, the dark had terrified him to the point that his mind started to break down under its own weight, even as he sat, huddled in the corner of a bare cell. 

Then he stopped fearing it. He stopped fearing it because he stopped realizing it was even there. Anymore, he could see in the dark as if it were daylight. For whatever reason, it brought no shifts to his normal vision either. Shadows didn't exist anymore, because he could see right through them like they weren't there. It was almost blinding at first, but with all the stress built around the change, he hadn't even noticed well enough to put much consideration into it. By the time he finally did stop long enough to think about it, he'd adjusted so well to the change that it became irrelevent to him in an instant. 

An ungloved hand palmed softly at the smooth and lifeless steel wall beside him. Though the stains had long since faded, he could still feel traces of blood. Though the scent had long since been washed away, he could still smell the fresh odor of blood. Though the survivors had long since moved on and buried their dead, he could still see echoes of them huddled in panic on the floor. He didn't know what era they were from - they could've been a collection of images spanning a hundred years and he would've been barely able to tell the difference - but they weren't exactly recent. 

Which was a shame, considering that one of the women was actually quite the looker. 

Pushing that random thought aside, he had turned his attentions straight ahead. The corridor came to an end soon, he could feel it reverberating from the walls. It was a subtle vibration, something overshadowed by the feeling of some great event playing out all around him. It would've been easily missed, and in all honesty, it probably should have. The feeling that overwhelmed it was one of near reverence. It was almost like feeling the excitement from competitor announcements at a Royal Cup, magnified a hundred times over, but somehow forced into a quiet and calm that only he and a select few others could feel. 

The future players were being put in place even as the current cast and crew winded down to their finish. 

In a way, it was actually infuriating. Like wanting to tell someone a secret but not knowing how to word it in any way that made sense. 

Soon though, thoughts and considerations of the feelings he had were put aside. Quietly, he drew his hand away from the wall and watched the echoes fade into nothingness, taking with them every sensation they'd brought. It was like having one's senses dulled by a slow moving shock of cold, but the effect was only temporary. With that, he put his glove back on and tightened it a bit. 

A few seconds later, Bill Chapman looked up from his hand to see a hulking figure bundled up in a corner, its back turned to him. It was colored differently than he remembered, and were his vision anything like a normal person's anymore, only the red parts of its body would've been visible at all. Even with his vision, it seemed to radiate a kind of pitch black that effected the mind more than anything else. A dark more oppressive than any shadow, and infinitely more opaque. 

A dark echoed with the sounds of two voices hiccuping and crying in unison, even as the figure itself trembled with emotions beyond reading. 

"Strange to see you down here," Bill said aloud, holding no pretense of the silent conversations of thought that the others relished in. 

**_ GO TO HELL!!!_** Both voices shrieked at him in a tone that made his brain itch. His vision briefly rattled at the intensity of it all, and a few seconds later, he felt a trickle a blood slide down from inside of his left nostril. He wiped it off on his glove without even feeling discomfort from it. 

"I've already been there," he replied calmly. "And by the look of things, you're dealing with it too." 

**_ YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!_** The voices cried accusingly. At the same time, their owner jolted out of his corner with a hissing roar, shimmering tears streaming down the side of its snout. The fearsome teeth in its jaws failed to find flesh though, and instead of attack, it halted less than an inch from his face. 

"You changed last night. I just put the finishing touches on," he pointed out, gazing into a red optic and a deeper, more malignant blue one. 

**_ THIS ISN'T NATURAL!!! _**

"Stop screaming," Bill ordered bluntly, again wiping blood from his upper lip. 

**_ Then what... Do you... Want me... TO DO?!_** The Organoid demanded irately. Through what remained of their increasingly fractured link, Bill could feel little more than confusion that flew between every human emotion and a hundred thousand others that he couldn't even comprehend beyond knowing that they were there in the first place. 

"Keep living," Bill replied simply. "There's an Organoid here now who's had a similar experience to what you've been through. Try-" 

**_ FUCK ZEKE! _**Came the less-than-sociable reply. 

At that, Bill let out a sigh and shook his head. 

"You've felt it, haven't you?" 

At this, the Organoid froze. 

"Something big went down somewhere in the far North. I don't know what, and I don't really care either," he said, and to an extent at least, meant it. "All I know is that I'm going to be one of the people whose fate is to try and fix it. So will that girl from earlier." He was rambling now. He didn't have much of an idea as to how right or wrong he was, only an impulse to go on and nothing else. 

"The point is that you're tied to both of us," he said abruptly. "Pick a side and stick with it. You've got the power to help change the world, do any less and I'll make this morning look like a walk in the park." 

**_ You don't scare me,_** Borealis replied, inching forward bit by bit. His body had changed, and so had almost everything else. While he still embodied confusion, it was less now. He looked a bit larger, though still every bit as slender and graceful as he had always been. One eye had turned a darker shade of blue, but the other was still as red as ever. His body reflected a more obvious change though, as the parts of it that were supposed to be blue were now a solid black that didn't even shine reflectively under what little light actually reached reached them. 

"I scare everyone," Bill shot back with a ghost of a smile. At that, Borealis drew away by a thousandth of an inch. It was the same as if the creature had jumped back and slammed into the wall. 

"Be seein' ya," Bill said while turning around. 

A few seconds later, he was gone.

* * *

"Judging from the data given to us by Vega, the Asmodeus is... It defies-" 

Leyon raised his voice from the table's edge. 

"_Hello_! Do I have to spell it out for you?!" The pointy headed whacko shouted out, standing abruptly. "For god's sake, man... _Look at it_!" He ordered. Vega's mother almost audibly grimaced as everyone in the room turned their attention to the center of the table, where a hologram of Asmodeus preparing to fire was being shown. 

"What about it?" Mrs. Obscura asked blandly. It was the kind of blandness one expected more from an overworked schoolteacher in a kindergarden class than the stand-in leader of the last neutral city on Zi. 

"_Look at it_," Leyon shouted again, jabbing a finger right at the hologram. "It's a fifteen mile long _serpent_ that shoots out white hot beams of death! How much more _phallic_ can you get?!" He shouted, spraying several people with spit in the process. Lars was glad that he was on the opposite side of the table, just out of range. 

"... _What in the fuck does that have to do with anything_?" Sarah, along with about four other people in the room, responded with a matching look on her face. 

At that, the previously silent Doctor Tauros grappled Leyon's trench coat by the back of the collar, yanked him down into his seat and stood up. He looked thoughtful, well-adjusted, reasonable and a whole lot less like a crackpot than his colleague did. The moment he opened his eyes though, Lars could tell that he was probably even crazier. He just happened to be tempered by raising children. 

"What Leyon is trying to say is that this thing well... It's not a serpent since it's got limbs and all, but that's irrelevent," he rambled briefly before downing a sip of coffee like vodka in a shot glass, then continuing. "This _dragon_, Asmodeus, was created with as much symbolism in mind as raw power. It was practically designed for the sole purpose of literally raping away the old vestiges of a predominantly female-oriented society and-" 

"Yes, yes, whatever, Steve. Nobody gives a damn as to why it was made, we just want to know what to do _about_ it," Sarah pointed out, cutting him off at the knees. While Lars found the whole thing terribly interesting, he still had to admit that the woman had a point. Killing Asmodeus was presently more important than theories about how it came into existence. He wasn't even a real fighter and he knew that much. 

Back and forth, another exchange followed. This time, Schubaltz jumped into the frey. Behind him, he could hear Kyle and Katherine muttering things to each other while leaning back against a wall. They had somehow been dragged into the procession along the way to an older, less-used planning room. Neither had even noticed him, and for his part, he hadn't been in much of a hurry to acknowledge them either. The crush he'd had on Katherine had been forgotten since he'd seen Hell and experienced combat, and in all honesty, he had always found himself smothered by Kyle's mere presence. He held nothing against either of them, he just wasn't crazy or lighthearted enough to connect to them at any level anymore. For their part, neither was intellectual or, more to the point, geeky enough to connect to him anymore either. 

Head leaned sideways onto a fist, he watched as Tauros and Martin, Schubaltz, Obscura and a few of the local military staffers spent minutes on end raging at each other about what to do, why such-and-such might work, whether they could do _anything_ at all... 

And all the while, he was flanked on either side by an Organoid and a pilot. One of the pilots was Bit, still looking like some kind of escaped mass murderer who hadn't slept in two months. The other was Vega, who seemed to be biding his time with an increasingly weary look on his face. Their Organoids seemed to stand behind each of them, leaving a clean gap behind him in the process. While he still found it awkward to deal with the things, he did like Bit and Vega. Sure, Bit was probably the single most insane person in the room at this point(and given present company, that was _saying_ something), and Vega was only half his age with the tendency to zone out at random and mention something taking place a hundred or more miles away, but in their own ways... 

In _his_ own way, he felt that he had bonded to the two of them. If not intellectually, then simply because they had shared common experience as to what had gone on in Nyx. Them more so than himself, but even so. 

He was their witness. The guy who could verify what they'd gone through. Even though Bit didn't show it much, Vega at least seemed grateful. That was good enough. It made him feel like an elite among elites. He wasn't a warrior, but he was still _there_. He had seen the Demon King rise from the bowels of Hell, gone in to try and save his friends and he'd come back out alive and virtually unscathed. Terrified, but unscathed. 

He was stirred from his reverie a few seconds after that comforting thought had occurred to him. Bit chose that moment to abruptly stand up, with the gold Organoid having stepped aside ahead of time. If anyone planned on trying to stop him from leaving, a single sentence cut them off. 

"Gonna take a shower. An' eat. Later." 

With that, he had left. His steps had possessed an almost lethal intent to them, and as the door slid shut in his wake, Lars could've sworn that the blonde would've killed anyone who spoke up against his departure. Even so, his leaving was a herald to a few more. 

"At this stage, I'm basically surplus to requirement here," the young blonde woman he'd identified as either Renee or Marry Champ(or was it Nicolette? He always confused them...) stated tiredly almost a full minute later. Where everyone had looked to Bit though, only Sarah and precious few others even looked ready to give her the time of day. With a curt nod, she exited not long after. 

Following that, Kyle and Kat also left, agreeing to make a coffee-and-food run given that they were basically being put up for free within twenty-four hours of the most violent battle in Champton's history. Lars had made a request for donut sticks, and neither of them even recognized him when he did it. Unsurprising, since his glasses weren't on, he'd gotten a few shades paler, had a grey hair or six, bags under his eyes and hadn't shaved properly since he and Vega had departed from Garnhelm, but... Whatever. It was only stubble anyway. He had the no-beard-until-you're-senile curse. Probably always would. Until he was senile. _Naturally_. 

It was in the ensuing pause that Stigma Stoller finally chose to speak up, almost as if on cue. He had arrived not long after the start of the meeting, and thankfully hadn't needed much cluing in. Considering that Sarah had actually deputized him as her own stand-in on the spot, Lars figured they'd either patched things up or, quite frankly, didn't give a damn about any past disputes right now. 

Which was good. Holding a grudge in this situation was tantamount to ramming a sawed off down your pants and pulling the trigger. 

"Considering that all we've got to go on right now is information gleamed from some kind of insect network translated into hard data, video and audio through the Fury's computer systems, it might be best to consult someone who was there," the man said in a gruff, hard-edged voice that Lars was well acquainted with. "Not only do we have the original source of that information on hand, but we've also got another witness on hand as well. Both happen to be sitting across from me, as a matter of fact," he pointed out, and both Lars and Vega nodded to him. 

Technically, Bit and Madison should've been there too. They weren't. Bit had, obviously, at least given it a shot, but Madison had elected to stay on the Foe Hammer. She hadn't bothered giving a reason, and to be blunt, Lars was really glad to get the hell away from her. She scared the snot out of him for some reason. 

"Right now, I put more trust in the data than-" Sarah was cut off. 

"Than you put into your own son? I don't know about you, but I trust any account Vega gives us to be 100 accurate and consistent with the data he's given us as well," Stoller pointed out with the calm of a chess player. The look that Sarah threw at him would've probably sent any other man in the room(Tauros and Martin notwithstanding) running for their lives. To Lars, it was obvious that she was underestimating Vega. She was treating him like a normal human being. He wasn't. Neither was Lars. Both had seen Death himself. Both were still sane. 

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Vega replied evenly, not even acknowledging his own mother as he began to run through a list of what had happened on Nyx. With Bit no longer present, he pulled no punches about what had woken Asmodeus up, nor did he withhold any of the details that had been previously omitted. Almost at the same time, a steel cable had sunk into the table from Specular's chest and the hologram updated to reveal everything, from 'gun camera' footage taken in the Fury's cockpit to a full 360 view of the Asmodeus as it rose and proceeded to blast some obscure point in the distance without even noticing their own existence. 

It was almost surreal to see it like this, but he figured that Vega had been able to watch it in this manner from the start. 

With an articulate tone to his voice that went decades beyond his age, Vega calmly proceeded to go through the hologram, detail by precious detail, leaving his mother stunned into silence and everyone else hooked in like it was the first time they'd ever seen it. 

Everyone except Lars. He had already seen it. He had _been there_. 

What did _they_ have that could amount to that?

* * *

It took her an hour, but she had found him. Far removed from the debates likely still raging like hellfire through the planning room. Far removed from people in general, since everyone with anything to do was busy doing that and everyone without anything to do was busy looking for something to do in the first place. Except for her, but she already had something she'd set herself to doing. Marry Champ wasn't a military planner. As time was passing, she found herself more and more inadequate for helping her family, and even her city, to keep it together. If that night where Rommel had shattered the world had never happened, she reasoned, she probably would've been able to recover and eventually take some in-city feifdom from Harry, live out her days as a socialite and die a happy old woman with a dozen grandchildren, most likely stemming from adoptions since she never saw herself as being the type to marry anyone. 

If that hadn't happened, and if her parents hadn't been killed off in an accident before that, she felt that she probably would've ended up marrying some spoiled little snot-nosed son of a trillionare in order to help further solidify a corporate alliance or something. In all likelihood, her happiness would come from things outside of her family, she'd live in a scandal-ridden household and she'd die with twice as many grandchildren, almost all of whom were just as spoiled as their parents, who were in turn even more spoiled than their good for nothing father. 

It was funny that neither option was available anymore. She was basically free to do whatever she wanted in the world now... If not for the fact that it was probably going to be annihilated in a few months tops, according to what little she'd had the stomach to sit through in the planning room. 

She wanted to ignore that reality right now. She wanted to help someone. The key problem was that everyone she tried to help was already at the point that no matter how hard she tried, she simply burdened them further. On the battlefield, diplomatically, even in the office it seemed. She wasn't much of a pilot, her diplomatic skills had been honed outside of a militaristic setting during _peacetime_ and her skills at all things fiscal had always been subpar compared to her older siblings. Granted, she'd always been better than Harry, but that meant little anymore with how much he had accomplished while she'd wallowed in self-pity. 

In her own uniquely selflessly-selfish kind of way, she wanted to feel important and she wanted to benefit someone at the same time. She wanted to feel safe and she wanted to provide a safeguard for someone else. She wanted to be _needed_, even if it was only in passing. 

She'd seen her chance earlier that day. When he had looked at everyone, she saw right through him. Beneath the caked blood on his clothes. Behind the dead look in his eyes. Underneath that bland tone to his voice. She saw past the psychotic looking freakshow that had stepped off the Foe Hammer and, underneath it all, recognized him as the dopish, hypercompetitive slacker who had piloted the white Liger against her. She hardly remembered his name at first, but after a while, it came easily enough. 

Bit. Bit Cloud. Not a normal name, but not so unusual that it didn't fit. He had looked different back then. A lot healthier and a lot less insane, to put it mildly. 

It took her an hour, but she found him at last. 

He was sitting in the upstairs lobby of the airport's reception building. His posture was slumped, but he looked about three shades lighter. Marry quickly came to the conclusion that he had bathed and either swiped clothes from an open locker or somehow washed what he'd come to Champton in. Either way, the outfit he had on now looked the same as what he'd had on when he arrived, sans blood, bile and other forms of grime. He was alone, it seemed. No pillows, no blankets, no sleeping bag, just himself and the windows, staring out at the landing pad and the stars above with the lights out. 

"Hello?" She asked after a few seconds, noting both the open door and the fact that he still had the appearance of someone who could kill a dozen people in half as many seconds and be so numbed by it that it didn't even bother him. 

"Piss off," came the reply. He didn't actually move to try and make her, and he didn't turn around or sic that golden dragon thingy on her... In Marry's eyes, that was as close as she'd get to an invite. Suffice to say, she took it and stepped inside, feeling almost as if the entire world shifted a little as she did so. 

She hadn't gotten very far into the room when she felt something brush past her ankles, turned around abruptly and found herself staring at the door as it slid to a close. Nervousness edged at her, but the mission remained clear and she didn't feel like running away now. Something in her gut told her that she wouldn't get a second chance if she did. 

"I came to check on you," she explained matter-of-factly. It was so awkward that she didn't try to sound anywhere near as sympathetic as she wanted. 

"Well, I'm not dead and I haven't ripped anyone's face off, so there's nothin' to worry about," he replied. A second later, his head swung up, Marry jolted back a step and found her heart pick back up after skipping a beat as the blonde pilot took a swig off of a bottle of something obviously alchoholic. Whether it was hard liquor or wine, she couldn't tell due to the low lighting. 

A half-belch, half-hiccup followed. Bit lowered the bottle and returned to staring out into whatever zone it was that he had focused on. 

"You're not okay though," she pointed out after a bit of hesitation. 

She was close by now. Within a few feet of the back of his seat. It was a bench, with those fuzzy pads on the seat and back that she'd always loathed back before she realized how rare any kind of comfort was anymore. She was close enough to make out that his legs were spread in the typical lazy-stressed-guy posture, with one hand dangling over a knee. He was unarmed. 

He also didn't reply to what she'd said. It was, again, probably the closest she was going to get to an invitation. 

A few seconds later, Marry had made her way around the bench and sat down near him, though she had the sense to not plop down _right next to him_ or anything along those lines. Desire to help didn't supercede desire to keep breathing. Much. 

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?" She asked softly, looking over to him. His reply, at first, was an iced over half-glare that made her blood run a few degrees cooler than normal. 

"You've got no fuckin' clue what I've been through," he growled out, still with the sidelong attempt at a glare. The bags under his eyes were almost sickening to look at. Assuming she wasn't imagining them. He had shaved and cleaned up, but he obviously hadn't slept enough in far too long. Even so, with the urge to run and hide boiling in her gut, Marry pressed on. 

"Then why don't you tell me about it?" She asked, still as soft as before. This time, he actually turned his head to look at her. The feeling of blood gone cold intensified. It almost made her head hurt, but her nerves felt as though they had been forged from steel. "If you don't tell anyone about it, how can you expect to heal from it?" 

"I don't expect to. I don't deserve to," he replied bluntly. 

"How can you be the judge of that if nobody else knows?" 

"People already know." 

He was starting to crack. She could see it. Not obviously, but something about him was starting to give between the pressures of guilt, alchohol, sleeplessness and her own relentlessness. That was either a good sign or one to start running. She couldn't tell, and even if she could, it wouldn't have made much of a difference to her. 

"But none of them have tried to comfort you about it, have they?" She guessed. A shot in the dark, really. At this, he turned away again, looking straight forward and taking another swig. 

This brought Marry to advance further, scooting sideways and a bit closer. 

"You're not alone, you know," she offered up, reaching out and slowly, methodically putting her hand on top of his free one. 

"Don't. Touch. Me." 

She didn't move her hand. Instead, she squeezed his. 

"It's okay, Bit," she offered again, scooting a bit closer still. 

"You don't get it," he replied. 

"What's there to get? I can't help if you don't tell me." 

"_There's nothing to help with_," he bit out. 

"Then why are you tearing yourself apart over it?" She asked calmly. 

To this, he had no real answer. Some stuttering, but no answer. 

"I can't tell you that you'll feel any better about whatever it is you're hurting over, but at least you'll know that someone still sympathizes with it. I know I'm not the only one, but I'm still here," she said, now close enough that their shoulders were pressed against each other. 

"I..." 

A pause. Marry felt something building up beneath the surface, but waited patiently. 

"... Don't feel like talking about it right now," he replied. Awkwardly. 

"You don't make a good liar," Marry shot back with a vague smile. At this, Bit let out an almost deranged sounding laugh. The kind that was so hollow it bordered on mechanical, and so lifeless that it probably would've reduced small children to tears. Marry winced, but managed to suppress any of her other reactions to it. 

"I_ don't _wanna talk about it," he said again, still giggling nervously. His whole body was starting to shake. She squeezed his hand once again, but remained quiet. At the rate he was going, he was just a few seconds short of cracking up all together. "_Who_ in the _fuck_ would wanna _talk about _what _I've been through_?" He asked, twitching, laughing and interrupting himself with gasps for air every few seconds. "_Nobody_ can relate an' _nobody_ is gonna understand..." 

"Does it matter if anyone can relate from personal experience, or understand perfectly?" Marry asked, choosing that specific moment to make her move. It was almost like playing a chess game with someone who didn't even know the rules. 

Bit's only real response after that was a jumble of words and a last crack of laughter before he threw the bottle into the floor and broke down all at once. He didn't shoot to his feet screaming, didn't whip out a gun and blow her brains out and he didn't swing around that Z-shaped knife at his side. Instead, he literally broke down like a car that had run out of gas. His body practically deflated, and his shoulders slumped. His eyes burst into tears that, quite frankly, no man should've had to cry. His voice cracked up to the point that she could hear his vocal cords scraping and in a period of five seconds, Bit Cloud looked as if he had aged twice as many years. 

Marry reacted in the only way she, or anyone else with a shred of sympathy could have. She reached out, drawing her hand from his own and tucked an arm around his shoulders before tugging him close enough that his head laid against her shoulder. Then she just kept quiet, occasional words of comfort not withstanding. It was all she could do until he was calm enough to speak without laughing hysterically. 

It was a long night, from beginning to end. She sat with him, and he continued to break down into a million pieces, finding an emotional outlet that he hadn't had in months. Somewhere in the midst of it all though, an equal exchange took place at a level neither of them had been familiar with in quite some time. It wasn't physical, because outside of talking and gestures, nothing physical happened. It was emotional. Somewhere along the way, Bit Cloud began to feel relief, and Marry Champ... 

Well, she achieved what she had set out to do. 

She felt needed again. 

Tomorrow was going to be the brightest day in a long, long time. 

_

End Chapter Fourteen

_

* * *

**Author's Note:** ... I just realized that this is the single most relationship-heavy chunk of TOD thus far o.o Appologies. That said: **HALLEFUCKINLUJAH, BABY!** XD The Marry-Bit scene is something that's been brewing in my head since before I reintroduced the Champs in TOD. The song may not entirely fit it, but trust me, I used it for a reason. I set those two up for a reason. Stew on that.

And I'd also like to say this much: That scene was the single easiest romantic-ish scene I've ever written. Ever. In my life. It gave me a cavity or five by the time I was finished, but it was still the easiest I've ever done. I didn't even have to stop and think of actions or dialogue.

Aside from that, Leyon's phallic-Asmodeus comment is something that's been brewing in my head since Renegade Mad Scientiest Powwow XD And Lars and Bill were also some of the most fun scenes I've written since the end of the Doom Siege. Lars especially since everyone has a tendency to forget him in everything, even me. It felt nice to give that little bastard some development.

That all said: Sh33p out. Look for review-replies in the usual place. 


	15. Revelations

**Foreword:** Phelan, aka Wolfenmech, is officially your new God-Emperor. Go. Worship him.

**Scene One:** Witch Hunter Robin - Shadow  
**Scene Two:** Witch Hunter Robin - Plot(or Gundam SEED - Wheel of Destiny)  
**Scene Three:** Sarah McLachlan - I Will Remember You  
**Scene Four:** Wolfs Rain - Heaven's Not Enough

* * *

** Tides of Darkness  
** Revelations 

It had been at least two hours since Bit had excused himself. In that time, coffee had been brought, the meeting had been put to the breakstone once, donut sticks had been eaten, ramen had been slurped and several people had used the bathroom. The only thing he had in common with anyone left in the room was that he had been to Hell with one of them and, like most of the others, had gotten a drink and eaten. A donut stick. Followed by a bagel. Then a microwaved corndog. And then two bags of chips. It was the first thing he'd had in... Far too long, that actually equated to _real_ food. 

It was also the first time in years that Sarah had made even the slightest attempt at reigning in his eating habits. It hadn't worked. At all. She seemed disappointed, but his growing immersion in the cold reality of their situation left him with little care for that fact. 

It was actually sad. She was his mother. She gave birth to him, murdered her own husband to try and keep him in her custody, degraded herself on at least a few occasions and broke glass ceilings, careers and laws to try and keep him happy and provided for. She'd even given him the 'toy' that almost every normal child wants: A Zoid. An Ultimate X, no less. And in the end, none of that had done her any good at all. If anything, she'd only sped the eventual schism up by years, maybe even decades. 

And there was also the matter that her other son was dead... A mass murderer the likes of which hadn't been seen in centuries. 

Unfortunately for Sarah though, Vega Obscura's musings weren't even related to this line of thought. He had gone through the explanation of what had happened in Nyx, from start to finish. He had detailed everything he knew, from Bit's time training under a woman named Madison to the rise of the Asmodeus, not to mention their panicked flight from Hell and everything in between. He had even gone so far as to replay the Demon King's rise six times at different angles and distances, picking each one apart as only he could. 

And the responses, irrelevent as they were in his eyes, were as easily predicted as they were pointless. Fear. Anxiety. Brooding. Utterances of profanity, hushed calls to God, and even a few tight hand-squeezes among those few in the room who were close enough to share them. Vega heard every single one of them. 

But his attention was locked solely on three people. 

"... I don't know what the hell we could do to it," Jamie Hameros finally said aloud with a sigh that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. He'd joined the table almost within minutes of Marry's departure, assuming her seat in the process. "My only guess about it is that it's slow, but something of that size would have more protection than... Anything," he fumbled out. It was clear that even now, he was at a loss for words. "Its armor alone's gotta be at least as thick as the body of a Gojulas... And the internal structuring's probably so sturdy that it could withstand a charged particle cannon. Or three. Plus a missile barrage and the hybrid cannons," he mumbled. As Vega'd expected, he was three steps ahead of almost everyone else in the room when it came to planning and analyzing. Even the military experts. 

With Jamie failing miserably though, Vega shifted his eyes over to the next of his three people. Leena Tauros. He didn't know the specifics, but something had happened to her. Something big, important and long lasting. He had seen it in her eyes and, more to the point, he was certain that she had known he'd seen it just by looking at him. 

"... I can't find any weaknesses. At all," she stated, blandly. Where he'd expected Jamie's comments, Leena's left him with a sinking feeling. Like someone had dropped a brick in his stomach and chained it to the heaviest anchor they could find. Outwardly impassive, he was feeling more tense by the second. "I can't gauge its armor depth, but its body is literally _covered_ in shield projectors and multi-use turrets, all tucked away out of sight," she said with certainty this time. "I can't gauge very much about how it all works from video and audio only, but I'm guessing it's using some kind of..." 

Cue valleygirl pause. In spite of the change, Leena's vocabulary still had some work to be done before it was up to par in a discussion like this. 

"Electromagnetic field manipulation," she finally said off the top of her head. Vega almost wanted to clap at how she'd said it without even hearing it from someone else. "In order to fly," she finished, then picked up again. "It absorbed the continental Rare Hertz that Vega mentioned earlier, and that's probably what's providing much of its initial power. Anything that size is likely to have a dozen or more seperate Cores, and it'd take the kind of power it absorbed just to jumpstart them..." 

There was another pause. Nothing was humorous about it. 

"What Vega and Bit dealt with wasn't even a fully awakened Asmodeus. It was still sluggish from its Cores waking up. Judging from the video, it's probably _still_ sluggish right now or it'd be using an orbital slingshot maneuver to get around," she pointed out. 

"... Since when did you become a walking pile of technobabble, anyway?" Leyon chimed in sardonically. Leena shifted an apathetic look his way, but Vega didn't mind the interruption. Leyon happened to be number three on the list anyway. 

He was there for a simple reason. More so than anyone else, Leyon had said the most, but he'd contributed the least. Some might chalk this up to raw nerves, egomania and even crazed college professor syndrome. Chances were, they'd be partially correct. 

Vega knew better though. Leyon had a cold sweat. He was avoiding eye contact by looking at people's noses and mouths. Occasionally, he had stumbled over his words and on several occasions, he had actually choked aloud whenever someone made a particularly rash suggestion. Vega knew it. He was certain the Leena knew it too. 

_ "He's hiding something,"_ he thought to himself, eyes narrowing by a few fractions of an inch as they settled on Leyon's pointy head. Specular issued a growl behind him, but said nothing. She was more focused on scrutinizing his birth mother. 

"_Anyone_ can s-" 

"What is it you're hiding, Leyon?" Vega finally asked aloud. Leena seemed to take it as her cue. Only belatedly did Vega realize that she'd probably planned on letting him start first ever since she had picked up on Leyon's more-unusual-than-normal behavior. 

"You're acting strange. Even by your standards," she pointed out. 

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Leyon snorted. 

"Out of everyone here, you've spoken the most and contributed the least. You've shot down plans as being ridiculous and taken stabs at humorizing the situation at every chance you get," Lars cut in. _This_ caught Vega off guard. He didn't credit the nerd with having the backbone to talk down to someone of Leyon's stature and reputation. Apparently, it had caught Torson's former friends off guard too, as he could _almost_ hear Mazemia and Takahori's breathing stop. 

"So what?" Leyon retorted. "Haven't you stupid shits ever heard o' _coping_ and _criticism_? Even if I can't give a better alternative, I can still see which ones suck the most." 

"You've got an alternative," Leena replied calmly. At once, everyone but Vega and Lars had shifted a look in her direction. "You're just afraid of saying what it is." 

"_Bullshit_," Leyon half-shouted through grit teeth. "If I had an alternative, don't you _idiots_ think I'd'a mentioned it by now!" 

"No," Steven Tauros cut in. Where Vega, Lars and Leena all shared a calm kind of inquisitiveness, Steven sounded more like an annoyed parent who hadn't had enough sleep lately. "You wouldn't. You'd wait around until you were so fearful that your teeth would start shaking. You'd have to see every possible alternative scrapped before you put your precious work in jeopardy," he pointed out. 

"Then _please_ explain the Shadow Fox, why don't ya?" Leyon shot back, glaring daggers down at where Steve sat next to him. Somewhere between shouting and grinding his teeth together, he'd stood upright and almost hurled his chair to the floor in the process. He was close to cracking now. Vega figured that if anyone could succeed at finishing the job, it would be Steve. 

"The Shadow Fox's Beke II unit wasn't ever _that_ important to you. If it was, you wouldn't've actively _shared it_ with the Backdraft, and you would've come after its pilots ready to kill them in their sleep to get it back," Steven replied knowingly. At this Leyon flinched. 

And then Vega was surprised again. 

"... Project Blue," Sarah stated bluntly. "It has something to do with Project Blue, doesn't it?" She asked at first. Leyon was starting to squirm now. 

"_Well_?" She demanded flat-out. At this point, she looked half-ready to strangle him. 

"Project Blue," Steven repeated. "Something you guarded so zealously that I couldn't find information on it even when I _hacked the freaking Guardian Force mainframe_," he stated. Otto facefaulted visibly. Lars, Vega and Leena all fell dead silent. It was Steve's show now, and Sarah looked to be directing it from the sidelines. "_Is that what's so precious to you_?" 

Leyon's head lowered. 

"_Is that why you haven't bothered contributing_?" 

His shoulders slumped. 

"_Is it so important that you won't risk it until everything else is thrown out the window_!" 

Both men took a deep breath. Steve was about to start screaming, but this time, Leyon cut him off. 

"_Yes_," he stated. "It's Project Blue. It's my _life's work_ and I don't wanna risk it unless there's _nothing else that can be done_!" 

At this, Steve spoke again. Vega had to give him points for style, if nothing else. 

"Guess what?" He asked. Leyon slowly turned his head to make eye contact. When he did, Steve finally answered his own question. 

"There's nothing else we can do. _Now start talking_," he growled out. It was a far cry from the jovial model collector that Vega often thought of when Steven Tauros came to mind. His voice literally epitomized grit, and his expression was one that probably put the fear of god into others numerous times during his younger days as a Zoid pilot. To Vega, it was like watching shadows warp around a man's face until he looked more like a beast than a human being. 

In truth, it was actually kind of terrifying. 

Leyon's response was almost scripted out of an old Western. 

"I'll do one better," he rasped out. "Get me access to the Shadow Fox."

* * *

"_Gack_! Damnit, Kyle, _get off me_!" 

"He's not gonna do anything to it!" 

"_He's ripping out its fucking brain_!" 

"_**SOMEBODY SHUT THAT ASSHOLE UP!**_" 

"**_I'LL BITE YOUR POINTY HEAD OFF!_**" 

"**_CALM DOWN! EVERY-_**" 

Thud. 

Before Katherine could even finish trying to stabilize the situation, Leena had acted. All it took was something that looked vaguely reminiscent of an improperly done Vulcan neck pinch. After that, Harlock had literally flopped to the ground without so much as a word, dragging Abbie, Kyle and Lars right down with him in a tangle of human limbs and improperly placed hands. By the time the three had gotten back up, Lars' glasses had gone lopsided and a rather large palm imprint had burned itself into the side of his head. Not that it could be easily seen, given that he was already blushing like a schoolboy to begin with, but that was beside the point. 

"... Nevermind," Kat finally muttered out after a few seconds. 

"Don't worry about him. I just put him to sleep. Won't even have a bruise or any brain damage," Leena commented when Abbie finally straightened up and glared at her. 

"... He has a brain?" Kyle asked. It was obvious that he was only partially joking. Vega wasn't very amused by that, but the sight before it had been humorous at least. 

Marcus Harlock was not a puny fellow. He was built like a basketball player, probably on the order of 6'5" or a little taller. Out of everyone in current attendence, only Tauros and Martin could even meet him at eye level. It had taken three people just to hold him back after he'd found out what Leyon intended to do, and yet Leena Tauros, who when wearing her glasses resembled some kind of nerdy computer-obsessed schoolgirl, had dropped him with one move. It wasn't even a real attack. She'd boredly stepped up alongside him on an empty path, reached out and pinched the side of his neck between her thumb and index finger. 

Then he fell over. By the time Kyle had made his wisecrack, Mark had started snoring and drooling on himself. Which was probably the reason that Kyle looked compelled to poke him with a stick. 

"Now that _that_ is over with," Vega cut in, glancing over from the downed pilot to the Zoid he'd been trying to keep Leyon from getting his hands on. "What exactly is in that thing's memory banks?" He asked, knowing that he was voicing a question on everyone's minds. Nearby, Sarah was strumming her fingers on one arm impatiently. Tauros was playing second fiddle to Leyon, helping him poke through the Fox's cockpit. They'd only been able to keep the thing in check through use of an old voice override that Leyon had left in it. 

"You'll see in a minute," Leyon replied. He was presently seated in the cockpit, hunched over the primary console trying to fiddle his way through the Fox's systems. The Beke II program was resisting him, even with all of his overrides, and it was obviously beginning to frustrate him. 

Finally, after almost two minutes of pillaging through back door gaps, unintentional openings and then being kicked out whenever he came one barrier shy of whatever it was he was looking for, the pointy headed freak threw up his hands and screamed. He then flopped back into the pilot's seat and proceeded to scream again. Louder. 

"_**WHAT THE HELL DID YOU IDIOTS DO TO THIS THING!**_" He finally bellowed out in a rage, leaving Kyle to abruptly straighten up and glare at him. Abbie and Katherine weren't far behind. Jamie was the last. "All the systems are screwy and none o' my passwords are working on the last barrier!" He said somewhere between flailing around and throwing a temper tantrum like a five year old. 

"It was recently evolved," a new voice pointed out from next to him. It was young, apathetic and perfectly rational even in spite of the goings-on of the past few minutes. "Approximately three days to one week ago," its owner stated. 

At this, Vega couldn't help but glance down at his right side. The kid next to him went by the name of Alistair. He was only a few years younger than Vega was, but he looked like he had the gleam of some kind of anti-christ in his eyes. It was almost disturbing just to stand next to him. Almost like looking into a broken mirror, only completely different at the same time. Vega didn't fear him, but he could tell that his feeling was only mutual with the kid's adopted parents and Leena. Everyone else seemed to give the boy a wide girth. 

"... Evolved?" Leyon asked incredulously, his fit of anger giving way to disbelief. "Nobody in your group is a scientist, and nobody had an Organoid either!" 

"We didn't need one," Jamie cut in. 

"Zoids don't just flash-evolve on their own!" 

"Nobody is saying that it did, Doctor Leyon," Alistair replied far too calmly for his age. "But its evolution did alter some of the base programming of the Beke II system. The password right now is 'my pilot is a mental patient, his best friend is a fairy and white Ligers suck.' No spaces or commas, capitalize Ligers," he stated bluntly. Leyon stared at him. Hell, everyone but Leena was staring at him at this point. 

"... What?" He replied to the looks with a shrug. 

At that, Leyon's brow twitched. Steve prodded him, the two exchanged looks and then went right back to work. Another minute later, Leyon was at the last barrier. Another half a minute after that, he put in the password. A few seconds later, Martin slowly raised his head with a smile that had often made people worry about his sanity. Then, in a voice so smug and self-satisfied that it made Vega's skin crawl, the man spoke up at last. 

"_Success_," he said. Simple, short, blunt and straight to the point. "I'll have everything we'll need in about two minutes," he stated, just as Steve handed him a computer stick of some sort. Vega only barely recognized it, but Lars practically oggled the thing. It was a specially made field-styled datastick, the kind normally used only by the Guardian Force's elite special forces. On the civilian markets, things like it would've sold for more money than the internal organs of everyone within earshot. 

At any rate, Leyon shoved it into some unseen connector near the command console and went right back to work. 

"... And as an aside," Leyon paused in the middle of typing something. Vega watched curiously as he glared daggers in Otto Schubaltz's direction. The general had tagged along almost for novelty's sake, it would seem, and happened to be standing next to Sarah. 

"Military'll see this over _his_ dead body," he stated bluntly. Schubaltz frowned. 

"Is that really necessary?" The general asked. 

"_Yes_," Leyon answered. "_It is_. I don't trust any government, and I damn sure ain't gonna trust a _general_ either." 

"... Charming," Schubaltz replied with an almost aristocratic shrug. "Is there any way you could talk him into changing his mind?" He asked, glancing over at Sarah. 

"Not a chance in Hell," she replied blandly without even looking at him. 

"... Well, since _I'm_ now surplus to requirement, I suppose I'll be leaving. _With_ my soldiers." 

"No you won't," Stigma cut in almost on cue. "Because if you do, you'll be breaking your word. In doing so, you'll be damaging the reputation of the Schubaltz family name. Considering the number of people and security cameras in this fortress, not only will you be unable to eliminate all the witnesses, you'll be unable to eliminate all the evidence. Think of your son's future before you make threats like that," he commented. 

"I like that guy already," Vega heard Alistair mumble with a single brow raised. 

"Welcome to the club," he replied in a matching tone, complete with a similar expression: Bland, neutral and borderline apathetic. Disturbingly enough, Stigma also had this same expression on his face. 

If anyone noticed, nobody said so. 

"... Point taken," Otto replied after a few seconds of glaring at Stoller, just before pushing past him anyway and leaving without so much as another word. Not like he'd be hard to track down if they needed him or anything. 

"With _that_ out of the way," Steve began. "Just why are you so against showing this stuff to anyone in the military?" He asked. 

"When Nadya Zenebas first made it into the cockpit of an Iguan, people cheered. They thought they had unlocked the door to survival and prosperity on Zi. When the first dictator climbed into the cockpit of a Saber Tiger, people cried. They knew they had unlocked the door to eternal warfare and restlessness. Look at what's happened since then," Leyon answered. "I'm not about to be responsible for giving a soldier _anything_ they could ever use like that. Especially not my life's work." 

Steven nodded. 

"I sank thirteen years, ripped off a few trillion bucks in materials and funding and killed I don't know _how_ many Cores to make this thing. It's a last resort. A final solution, if you will. An absolute answer to things like the Death Saurer... And Asmodeus. I made it with the full intention of never living long enough to see it used," he explained, pausing only briefly to blow his nose on the back of his hand and wipe it off on his coat. "Can't always get what ya want." 

There was a shortlived pause between the two, and then Leyon cracked an unusual looking smile before speaking again. 

"Now that I think about it, it's kinda like the opposite number of something like the Asmodeus... It symbolizes hope and resistance," he pointed out. "... That's prob'ly why I made it blue."

* * *

Exhaustion was setting in. It felt like the first time the fortress had been quiet in months, even though it had only been a day. Coffee was the only thing keeping most people awake, and Naomi was little different, though she'd yet to acquire the taste for it that so many people commented on. 

Quite frankly, it still tasted like piss to her. She would've killed for even some storebrand tea right now. Hot, iced, room temperature, it didn't matter. It was almost like the only part of the coffee keeping her eyes open was the disgusting taste and the equally sickening sensation of the stuff slipping and sliding down her throat like motor oil - which, coincidentally, was one of the nicknames for the stuff as of late. 

It was three in the morning now, maybe as late as four. Sleep deprivation and the still-fading rush of adrenaline from last night had kept her so wide awake that the only real indicator of time she had paid any attention to was daylight, and that was obviously not an option at night. Let alone under a few hundred tons of reinforced concrete and steel. 

The hallways under the fortress had finally lost the noise of celebration. Every few minutes, she still passed by a couple of people who were trying to have a small party out in the open, and even a few larger gatherings every now and then, but even the citizenry had lost steam since they had first huddled together last night. Shock might've been setting in for a few people, but the delays brought by enthusiasm and denial alike were keeping most of the populace from going berserk. The kind of damage inflicted on Champton was something that would take generations to rebuild, both physically and emotionally. Naomi had the distinct impression that most of the children she'd seen in the hallways would be grandparents by the time the city was finished rebuilding itself... 

And that thought made her feel old. 

It made her briefly ponder the prospect of the ever-present biological clock, ticking away in every woman like their lives revolved around it. 

Then a random thought of her Gun Sniper being eviscerated turned the biological clock on its ear and kicked it in the groin. Repeatedly. 

Naomi had never really been one for the thought of settling down. Sure, some part of her still had the desire for a storybook ending, wherein prince charming kissed her and saved her from the decidedly anti-social lifestyle of a Zoid pilot, but it was buried so deeply that she doubted it would ever come back out in full. More than most things, Naomi Fluegel was a realist. If anything, she'd just adopt a war orphan or something when she retired. 

But kids were always such a pain... 

And somewhere in the midst of this trainwreck she had come to call a thought process over the past two or three days, Naomi had ended up outside of a personnel-only rec-room. Considering that Naomi now viewed herself as base personnel by default, she didn't even bother looking around to make sure no-one would see her go in. 

The sight that greeted her was, at once, saddening and reassuring at the same time. 

A man and a woman, seated on an old couch, leaned together. His head was propped up on her own, and both of them looked as if they'd probably cried themselves into a state vaguely resembling peaceful sleep. But they'd done it together, as evidenced by how she was wearing his jacket and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders in a protective manner. She recognized them both after a few seconds, of course. They had been Class A Zoid pilots. Jack Sisco, an ex-mercenary like Brad(possibly even an old friend of his. She didn't have the mental stamina to try remembering right now), and Chris Tasker. 

That the two of them looked so grieved meant that the younger sister, Kelly, had probably been among the casualty count from last night. 

Naomi didn't know them very well, aside from a meeting or two around the time of the Royal Cup, but she sympathized with the two. A lot deeper than she thought she was capable of. It hadn't been too long ago since she'd laid her own team-mates to rest, and the mark on her hand was probably something she wouldn't fade with time, even when the ink itself was gone. 

Quietly, she set down the coffee on a table and made her way over to an equally old, somewhat beaten looking leather recliner not far from the couch. It wasn't much by civilian standards, but Champton seemed to go the extra mile for making life as comfortable as possible for its defenders. Naomi appreciated that. If only because she couldn't remember the last time she'd actually slept somewhere comfortable... 

Not counting Leon. 

Leon made for a good pillow. A better team-mate, but a good pillow nonetheless. If Naomi hadn't developed such a platonic relationship with him, she probably would've given thought as to what else he would be good as, but that was neither here nor there. It was just another thing that couldn't be changed, and in a way, the fact that their friendship was going to stay so flat, platonic and close was more of a comfort than anything else would've been. 

As she lowered herself into the recliner though, Naomi couldn't help but wonder what he was up to right now. The last time she'd seen him had been through a sniper scope as his Blade Liger had plowed suicidally into a freakish Iron Kong of some sort. While she had no doubts as to whether he was alive or not, an edge of worry still gnawed at the back of her thoughts with regard to him, even now. 

That worry, along with everything else that had weighed down on her shoulders and tied them into knots so tight that it hurt just to turn her neck lately, washed away not long after she kicked the seat back. Sleep set in, and Naomi Fluegel went to it as peacefully as could be.

* * *

It had been around four or later by the time he finally stopped walking. The fortress was as quite as a corpse by now, aside from the wind outside. It was still, mostly, but every so often, it kicked up and he could faintly hear the sounds of people talking, screaming or even dying. When it blew by, his nostrils flared with the vague stink of death it carried, though anyone else would've missed it easily. It smelled of boiled metal and smoking human flesh, and of rupturing cores and bloodstained glass in the sand. Occasionally, a bit of dust and even smoke would whip by during the winds, seemingly impossible since almost every fire in what remained of Champton had been put out by now. 

And yet the smell of death carried on the wind was nothing to the smell of death in the hangar. Most of the dead were covered with tarps by now, and the severely injured had been moved, but people were still laid out everywhere. Most had been tucked under blankets or into sleeping bags, and their injuries just weren't severe enough to bother with medical attention when so many others needed it so much more. 

Out of everyone left on the hangar floor though, only one of them had drawn his attention and held it. He had felt something unidentifiable when looking at most, but when it came to the girl with the blue hair, his vision warped into a tunnel and his mind focused accordingly. Somewhere along the way, after he'd first located her, he had grabbed a folding chair - with a few bullet holes in it, mind you - and settled down next to the makeshift space she was sleeping in. 

He had waited for another half an hour before she had finally stirred. Another five minutes before she actually woke up, and another minute after that before she was coherent and awake enough to even notice his presence. When she did- 

"What the fuck do you want?" 

She wasn't exactly in a _pleasant_ mood. 

"I just came to deliver a message," Bill Chapman pointed out, staring not at Leyla Tsun, but out of the open door into the hangar. 

"And what the hell is that?" She asked bitterly. Without even looking at him, she had sat up straight and pulled the blanket - or was it a tarp? - around her shoulders. Maybe it was colder than he thought? 

Either way. 

"Calm down, for one," he ordered tiredly. Even if he couldn't sleep until the day after tomorrow at the earliest. "Clear your head and you'll notice it." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" She growled out. It was obvious that Leyla would've probably shot him in the head if she had a gun. Her contempt for him was something he could practically feel, boiling away at the side of his head, where she was undoubtedly glaring at him. While her hatred and fear didn't particularly effect him, he couldn't help but feel a vague tinge of malicious satisfaction from knowing it was there. 

"Just do it," he ordered again. 

This time, be it out of common sense, fear, or even curiosity, she complied. A few seconds later, his ears barely registered her heart skipping a beat. It was faint, but unmistakable. 

Where her heartbeat had briefly been audible though, her breathless cursing and the shocked series of miniature gasps that accompanied it weren't. After almost half a minute of Leyla's silence, Bill glanced over at her in time to watch the young woman lean over and dry heave onto the hangar floor. The blanket fell away, and Bill was finally able to see the numerous holes in her jumpsuit. Every single one had been caused by his actions, and almost all of them lead to some minor or moderate cut, scrape or bruise. 

"You know what it is then," he observed disinterestedly. Somewhere between heaves, she managed to gag out a yes. 

"Then you should also know that you and I are among the people fated to have to 'fix' whatever it is," he pointed out. At this, Leyla gagged again before violently chucking a wad of blood onto the floor. 

"_No_," she said almost immediately, looking back at him on a hand and a knee. Her expression was one of abject terror. Permanently blue eyes were wider than silver dollars, and looked both bloodshot and watery. Her mouth was trembling and still leaking blood, and every single hair on her head looked as if it was standing on end. "I'm not going _near_ that thing!" 

Bill frowned at her. 

"You will. You don't have any choice," he pointed out. 

"_I'm not going near it_!" She shouted out, though it woke no-one. 

"You _will_, or I'll kill you in cold blood," Bill stated plainly. 

They each paused a few seconds as fear shifted to anger, glassy blue eyes staring into neon ones. Then, finally... 

"And I'll be sure to strangle you when I do it. Or maybe I could drown you instead?" He asked morbidly, neither amused or horrified by the threat he was making. It was so matter-of-factly that most people would've burst into laughter at the absurdity... 

But Leyla was terrified again. More so than anything else, she feared suffocation. Drowning and strangling were two of the things that could truly shatter her resolve, and while Bill didn't know _how_ he knew it, he had no problem using it to its maximum. There was simply no other way, it seemed. 

"... What can I do?" She finally asked after a few too many seconds of staring at him like he was Satan. He almost felt guilty, but rational thought was enough to push that emotion aside. "I don't have a Zoid, I'm not a human killing machine and-" 

"If Borealis picks you, stick with him. Even if he doesn't, just be there no matter what it takes," he answered, looking forward again. "It doesn't matter how you're there, you're going to be a deciding factor in how all of this ends, whether you want to or not. If you try to run from that responsibility, I'll kill you. If anyone else does, I'll kill them. It's that simple," he said bluntly. 

"... Why do you act so high and mighty?" She finally sneered out, calming down enough that she could clean herself up with a sleeve and curl upright, hugging her knees to her chest. 

A set of names flashed through his mind. Then the image of an explosion. Then a new set of names, these with faces attached, replaced them. 

"Because I've got people worth fighting for," he said with a smile, and meant every word of it. 

_ End Chapter Fifteen_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Ow. This chapter hurt just to write x.x

That said, Project Blue was mentioned only twice, wayyyyyyy back in New Age. Don't feel bad if you don't remember it XD

Hopefully the next chapter won't take anywhere _near_ as long as this one did. Sorry for the delays, folks x.o Busy month and Creative ADD didn't help the progress of this chapter much.

Sh33p out. 


	16. Moments of Transition

**Foreword:** Soundtrack below. Happy One-Year Anniversary to Tides of Darkness, people!

**Scene One:** VNV Nation - Forsaken  
**Scene Two:** Wolf's Rain - Heaven's Not Enough  
**Scene Three:** Linkin Park - Intermission  
**Scene Four:** VNV Nation - Holding On  
**Scene Six:** Rurouni Kenshin - Departure  
**Scene Seven:** Linkin Park - Opening

* * *

** Tides of Darkness**  
Moments of Transition 

The meeting had ended. The morning came not long after, and entirely too soon for anyone's tastes, least of all his own, it had ended as well. It was late noon by the time that he had finally woken up, grimacing with a mixture of exhaustion, rapidly diminishing hunger and a growing surge of energy that really wasn't meant to be there. The bags that should've been under his eyes were absent, as they almost always were lately, and the sudden rush of awareness for the area around him was enough to make him feel lightheaded and sickened. 

It was better now than it had been when he first started, at least. Once, it had knocked him out completely. He hadn't been used to it then, but he was getting there now. 

The room he woke to find himself in was the same now as it had been when he'd left the planning room: Empty aside from him and the one that he trusted most. 

She was presently curled up beneath and behind him on the floor, acting as both a mattress and a pillow, with her tail draped almost possessively over his stomach. Somewhere along the way, someone had crept in, thrown a blanket on him and left. 

The room was supposed to be a bedroom for a commanding officer in the CDF. He was dead now, and Vega hadn't really wanted to lie in a dead man's bed. The room itself already wreaked badly enough of the man's memories as it was. The blanket had probably been set on him by one of two women on the base, though he didn't really feel up to seeing which one had done it. In all likelihood, it was his birth mother's doing. She had seemed a bit... Distressed by his return. Less so at Kale's demise, but that was only to be expected when her oldest son had gone after her with intent to kill. 

The relationship between them had hit a kind of breaking point, Vega felt. When he looked at her, he saw a woman who wanted to make things right, but when he looked in a mirror, he saw a youngster who was beyond reconciliation in the way that she wanted. Anymore, she was only his mother through blood. She hadn't exactly gone out of her way to provide an emotional attachment for him, after all. 

Specular was his mother now. At least, she helped fill the void. Bondmates transcended petty things like blood relations, after all. His connection with the Organoid curled up around him was probably going to be the closest he would ever have for as long as he lived. Closer than that of a parent or sibling, lover or offspring. At once, it was both a disturbing and comforting thought, and one that was quickly brushed aside as information overloard gave way to cohesive thought and a sense of purpose. 

They had come to a conclusion at the end of the meeting. A rough one, compromising between necessity, hope and hopelessness, and all of it boiling down to one possibility that seemed as far away to him now as the world before the Royal Cup. 

They had decided, Leyon and Steve, that they would lead a mission into the Sea of Witchery using the Empress Heart. They would bring upwards of a hundred and fifty people, along with around eight to nine Zoids and their pilots, on what amounted to a suicide mission. 

Recover Project Blue. Then try to stop the Asmodeus. 

It was simple, hopeless beyond redemption and desperate beyond words. A half-hearted effort at best, according to Sarah and Stigma, but one that was going to be undertaken all the same. 

Vega had been the first pilot selected for the job. He had also asked for the task of procuring the others, whoever they would be. Either through what was probably misplaced faith in a boy who hadn't even edged into puberty, or through pure intimidation over the fact that he seemed to know everything and had an Organoid to back him up, he had been given the job. He didn't know why they listened, and nor did he care. All that mattered was that they did. 

From here on until the last pilot was picked for the mission, it was his show. 

_ "Let go, Specular,"_ he requested more than he ordered. The Organoid, which had been feigning sleep for some time now, complied in short order, drawing her tail away and the blanket with it. From there, Vega stood up and stretched his arms, legs and back until something or other had popped. Loudly. 

After that, and a rather pained wince, Vega and Specular had left the room and stepped into the hallway. It was empty for now, and according to some of what the bugs had told him, so was much of Gyran's underground spiderweb of tunnels, hangars and hallways. Most of the local refugees were outside, grieving, assessing the damage and trying to find survivors. A lost cause, that last one, but he admired their tenacity. 

And wished that he could borrow some of it as well. 

** What do you plan on doing now, Vega?** Specular asked in the same voice as always. It sat somewhere between one that he now knew belonged to a woman named Riese, and the voice of his mother. 

For a long numbers of seconds, they simply walked together, and Vega took the time to think. Finally though, he came up with an answer. 

"First, I eat. Then, we find Bit. The others will all fall into place from there," he said, remembering what Leena had told him last night as the meeting drew to a close. "It's all just a jigsaw puzzle with spare pieces, after all..." 

While he knew that the statement was right, it still sent chills up and down his spine. After all... 

If everyone had a spare, who was his?

* * *

Lunch was uneventful at best. It was also considerably lighter than what he had wanted, since food was being rationed out at the moment and Vega wasn't in much of a mood for a feast anyway. In the end, it had amounted to two drumsticks and some corn with water for a drink. For an adult, it would've been dissatisfactory at best. For a normal adolescent, it would've been enough to tide them over until something else. For Vega, who didn't even really need to eat anymore, it was plenty. 

After eating, he had gathered his wits about him, stepped out onto the base with Specular and made a byline for the same landing pad they'd all arrived in. 

Outside, repairs were going at an almost frenzied pace. The base's workers, given a shot in the arm with the addition of Schubaltz's military engineers and Stigma's crew, were already half-finished with replacing the missing section of Gyran's South wall. Beyond that, an uncounted number of Gustavs, both local and refugee in nature, were mulling through the burned out husk of what had once been the thriving city of Champton, accompanied by both local citizenry and volunteer rescue crews. They had probably been working away since the celebrations had finally died down last night. 

Vega paid little attention to them aside from keeping himself out of their way. Specular trailed behind him at every single step, adding her eyes to his own whenever he had to cross a street or duck into an alley or building to avoid incoming traffic from the rear. The micro-sworders were available too, but Vega didn't feel like using them to do more than keep track of his target for the time being. 

After almost a half an hour of walking, they had finally arrived at the landing pad. The sight that greeted them was as uneventfully strange to him as he and Specular must've seemed to some of the shellshocked survivors or overworked engineers right now. 

The Organoid-like creature known as Roc, apparently sunning itself atop the Foe Hammer, and Madison sitting nearby, resting in the beast's shadow. Even when asleep, she looked about as close to invulnerable as anyone could get, with that absurdly large club draped across her lap and a mane of hair that looked like it'd snap the teeth off a comb if anyone even thought of bringing order to it. 

Neither pair said anything to each other, but Vega knew from one glance at the mirror-winged First Born, that they would probably be on the mission. It was just something that went without saying. 

A few minutes later, he and Specular had stepped into the airport to find it mostly empty. Security guards were absent, nobody was at the front desk and there wasn't even a janitor around to mop the floors. Not that it mattered. 

** What will you do if he says no?** Specular asked, bringing him to a stop as the neared the elevator. 

He had been about to give her an answer, but the sudden ping of someone using the elevator stopped him short. 

As the seconds ticked by from there, Vega Obscura felt his entire face tighten up, loosen, tighten again and finally relax with a long, deep sigh that left him feeling more at ease now than he had been in a week. Even so, the ruthlessly cold glare in his eyes refused to soften even a bit. 

The doors slid open. As they did, he found himself more or less at eye-level with Bit Cloud's chest, and while the blonde pilot was being accompanied by Harry Champ's sister, Vega paid her no real mind. She cringed at the sight of Specular, and undoubtedly at the near-murderous look that had probably attached itself to his face, but in the end, she was only really important to Bit right now. 

But Bit? 

He was important to everything. 

"What do you want?" The Liger pilot asked with an exhausted try at a sneer. 

"Leyon and Steve are overseeing a mission to the Sea of Witchery. I was picked to handle pilot selection. I'm selecting you," Vega answered in short order, meeting failed contempt with successful indifference. 

"And I'm saying no," Bit replied almost instantly. Marry was starting to calm down by now. At least she was adaptive. And smart enough to not try and interfere, as that likely would've gotten her injured. Or worse. 

"Then I'm saying tough shit," Vega shot back. 

"I'm not going," Bit growled. 

"Why?" Vega asked. 

For a few moments, the two did little more than stare at each other, one expecting an answer and the other looking more and more irate by the second. 

"I'm _tired_ of trying to save the world," the blonde finally answered through grit teeth. "It only ever ends up _blowing up_ in my face." 

"Too bad," Vega aswered. "You already made your choice when you accepted the role Madison and Roc offered you." 

Bit tensed. Visibly. His teeth were bared, and Marry's presence was probably the only thing holding him back. Vega knew just how far the Asmodeus had taken him on the road to a breakdown. As heartless as it was though, Vega didn't feel any sort of pity for him. Only annoyance that he wasn't willing to try and correct his mistakes. 

"And if I don't? What'll you do, kill me?" Bit asked, almost looking as if he wanted to crack a smile. 

"I probably can't do that, actually," Vega answered bluntly. "But there are at least two people on this base who can. At least one of them would be willing and able to," he explained simply. 

Bit twitched. 

"You _knew_, on some level, what you were getting into when you said yes. Backing out now is just the act of a _coward_, not the Bit Cloud I know, and certainly not the one I looked up to like a brother," Vega said, and meant it. 

"I know _better_ now," Bit shot back. 

Again, the two were silent. Marry was still not trying to interfere, and Vega credited her for that much. She was so far out of her depth right now that she was lucky to even realize what was going on. 

Finally though, Bit moved. Shrugging to himself, the blonde man jammed both of his hands into the pockets of his fatigue pants and tilted his head back disdainfully. It was probably the most disgusted look on his face that Vega had ever seen, but he didn't take the bait. 

"It ain't my problem anymore. Let someone else deal with it," he snorted. 

"Do you think running is even an option, Bit?" Vega asked, narrowing his eyes in a manner that made him look ten years older. 

"I'm not running. I'm just not gonna bother with it." 

"_That isn't an option, dumbass_," Vega finally snapped. At that, Bit flenched. "_This is your screw-up_, more than _anyone_ else's! Even if you feign neutrality to avoid it, _it's still going to come for you whether you like it or not_." 

Vega snorted. Bit straightened up and glared. 

"If you're too _pathetic_ to even try, then I never knew you to begin with... And if that's the case, I don't even wanna start now," Vega bit out. Without even giving Cloud the opportunity of responding, the boy turned around and stormed out of the lobby all together, with Specular not far behind.

* * *

"Check two off the list," Vega thought aloud a few minutes later, wiping his eyes on the back of his forearm as he did so. 

** Didn't seem like a resounding 'yes' to me**, Specular replied, less than impressed as they came to a stop in one of the alleyways. **He seemed even more against it when we left than when you first confronted him.**

"Appearances can be deceiving, remember?" He asked, glancing up to the Organoid with a smirk. "Bit may be broken down right now, but he's still the same heroic half-wit he was when he and I fought in the Royal Cup. All he needed was a harsh confrontation from me. Marry Champ can do most of the rest with a softer touch, then Zeke can finish the job with a pep talk or something, if he even has to in the first place." 

For a few seconds, Specular was dead silent. Then, she turned to look down at Vega and gave the notion of a grimly approving smile. 

** You're as good at playing people's strings as you are at blowing them up,** she said. 

"Thanks... I think."

* * *

For a full six minutes, neither of them spoke. 

It was a tense kind of quiet they shared, and an intimate one, even though they walked together, in plain sight, from the airport towards the nearest cafeteria she knew of. Marry had been raised in and around Gyran's now war-scarred walls, and with the kind of privileges that had been afforded to her as a daughter of Jerry and Sharon Champ, she had been able to explore them in ways that most military personnel hadn't even been able to touch. She knew the labyrinths, both above and below ground, better than some people knew the backs of their own hands. Battle damage and a few rennovations had cast her out of the loop, but even so, she was a competent guide. 

Bit enjoyed that. For once, he actually liked being lead around, especially since the battle had already been _fought_. He didn't have to do anything but hold her hand and follow. In fact, the only thing he didn't feel himself taking some relaxation in was how she held his hand. It was a grip like iron, very unbecoming of the lady he had met all those months ago back on the landing zone in front of the Blitz Team Base. Very unlike her, from what he'd come to understand of the woman. 

Perhaps it was farmboy obliviousness that kept him from noticing the looks that came with it... Or perhaps he was simply doing his best to ignore them. Either way, it didn't really matter. 

She had promised him a meal following their little encounter with Vega, and she was going to deliver. While they had only really _known_ each other less than a day now, Bit had, through sincerity or simple necessity, come to trust her to keep her word. 

And she did. By the sixth minute, they had finally arrived at a cafeteria, though it was almost abandoned aside from one exhausted looking cook and a guy who was numbly sweeping the floors as if it was the only thing keeping him from a nervous breakdown. 

"Here we are," she had announced in a terse, somewhat stressed voice, though he tried his best to ignore it. "It's... Not the best, but I suppose it'll have to do." 

"You never ate at a colonial buffet, did ya?" Bit asked, ignoring the stress and finding himself relieved that she failed to point it out to him. It was nice to just... Be _normal_ for once. Even if normalcy itself was little more than a pipe dream anymore. He didn't even have to contend with Zeke for once, a miracle in and of itself. 

"No. I didn't," Marry answered after a few seconds, letting Bit lead the way from there. 

For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Both got themselves a meal, though Bit's was abhorrently large considering that he hadn't eaten in a month or more now, while Marry couldn't stomach more than soup. They ate side by side, and when it was all said and done, they were left alone. The sweeper left, while the 'chef' went to the back for something or other and didn't come back. 

That left them. 

And an uncomfortable silence. Which was, again, broken by Marry. 

"What about that Obscura boy..." 

This time, he found no comfort in it. At all. 

"What about him?" Bit asked coldly, leaning forward to rest his chin on a fist. 

"What he said was right," she pointed out, bluntly but gently. 

He didn't respond. 

"_Bit_," Marry began again, raising her voice a little. 

"I know. I don't give a damn anymore," he replied annoyedly. "There's nothing anyone can do against that... _Thing_ but _die_. _Kale_ fucking _Obscura_ couldn't even do anything against it." 

"If there's nothing to do but die, what's the harm in trying?" Marry asked. "It's not like there'll be anyone a few generations from now to look back and say that you tried in futility, after all." 

Bit grimaced. Marry reached over and pressed her hand to his back, then started rubbing it. The fact that he was wearing what basically amounted to a flak jacket prevented him from actually feeling her hand, but he still rocked slightly from side to side with it anyway. 

"What's the point though? Everyone acts like it's noble to die for a greater good, but what's the point of giving up your life when your days are already numbered? Why not live it up for once?" He asked, seeming more to debate the matter with himself than he was with her. At this point, Marry was acting as his conscience. If he had a real one left anymore, it had been burnt to the point of ineffectiveness by everything he'd been through. 

"And why not obtain peace of mind by giving others a shot at more time? Even if you fail, you at least tried to make up for your mistakes." 

"I'm tired of trying." 

"Then _do_ it. You've beaten the odds before, and you can do it again." 

"Not like this," he mumbled out. "Nothing was ever like this." 

A short-lived pause. He spoke again. 

"Backdraft was just a bunch of stupid gamblers out to make some money. Rommel Corp was a bunch of puppets with no idea what they were truly getting into. Kale was just a psychopath, and Rommel was... Nothing but a lie with legs," he said with a thoughtful tone. "None of them were at the level of this thing. Not a damn one." 

"Then view it as another challenge," she suggested. 

"Challenges are things you can actually succeed at. Asmodeus is fifteen miles of suicide," he muttered. 

Marry sighed, then stopped rubbing his back in order to draw his attention. 

"Last night," she began, standing up from the table and looking down at him. "You told me you had once wanted to save the world..." 

He didn't respond again, and instead looking back to the wall in front of him. At that, Marry stepped over behind him, bent down and wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder and speaking as softly as a woman could. 

"After last night, I feel like I know you better than anyone, Bit. What you told me then... I think that somewhere, deep down, you still want to. You're just afraid of the consequences," she began. "Afraid that you'll end up suffering again. You won't." 

He laughed. Blandly. 

"Yeah... If I fail, I just die." 

"See?" She asked, smiling into the side of his neck. "_If_ you fail. You're already starting to come around to what you know is right." 

For a long minute or so, neither of them spoke. He thought, she waited, and neither of them even moved other than to breathe. 

"... You're right," he finally admitted, giving up the fight. 

"No, Bit. You are. You just needed someone to show you that," she explained, giving him one last squeeze before standing up straight and letting go of him. 

"You need some time alone to think to yourself... And I need a shower," she pointed out. 

"... I like a girl who can smell like grease, yanno," he replied, only half-joking. 

"Just because I _can_ doesn't mean I like to," she shot back, popping him lightly on the top of the head. 

A half a minute later, she was gone. 

And Bit Cloud was left wondering how in the hell he had ended up so close to her in so little time, with virtually no prior relationship of any kind.

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time he had come to a halt. Of the people he had decided to try and recruit, all but three of them were in place and ready to go. Meeting Bill Chapman and Leyla Tsun had been an awkward experience, but both had, in their own ways, agreed to join. Chapman had literally greeted him with an 'I'm in,' and Tsun had agreed to go right after he'd asked her. The two had been, more or less, camped out in one of the hangars that had been converted to hold the wounded and, in some cases, the dead. Chapman on a lawn chair, Tsun on a makeshift bed on the floor. Neither even acknowledged each other's existence, but whatever quarrels they'd had, Vega made it a point to stay out of it. 

Besides, being around Bill was, in and of itself, disturbing enough as is. The man looked _exactly_ like Bit with a few minor changes here and there. He was even wearing what looked like one of Bit's old outfits. 

After that, he'd sought out Jamie Hameros. The conversation between the two had been short, blunt and straight to the point. Jamie was in a bad way, but after a little prompting, he had given in and decided to go along as well. Vega had heard him mention something about a front row seat to the end of the world, but hadn't responded. At all. 

And now, here he stood in front of a small collection of Zoids and people. The burnt out carcass of a barely functional Blade Liger, another Blade Liger poking at it hesitantly, the Shadow Fox returned to its original 'parking' place and regarding both Zoids with what looked _almost_ like the letters W, T and F standing out in its optics... 

And at least two people shouting incoherently at the white Liger as it poked at the red one. 

Vega didn't know whether to be saddened or amused. 

Either way, he soon started forward once again, Specular at his back and his objectives in front. There were seven of them in all - three men, three women and Alistair, who was standing around looking bored with it all. 

Coincidentally, Alistair was the first one to notice him. The two exchanged passive glances and nods, shrugged and promptly ignored each other. At that, Vega spoke up to draw their attention, while Specular used a few hard mental jabs to stop the white Liger in its place. 

"Hello, everyone," he greeted blandly, causing the lot of them to abruptly notice his presence. In their own way, each of them greeted him in return, ranging from Mark's casual wave to Pierce's equally bland nod. As he'd expected though, it was Leon Tauros who instigated an actual conversation with him. 

"What can we do for you?" He asked in that voice that Vega had come to recognize as an adult not taking him seriously enough. A few months ago, that would've annoyed him. Now, he simply decided to use it to his advantage. 

"I've been asked to select a group of eight pilots for an expedition into the Sea of Witchery. It'll be headed by Leyon and Steven. Among that number," he paused, glancing straight over to the pilot of the Shadow Fox, namely Marcus Harlock. "Is you." 

Mark blinked. Then sputtered. Then shared a hesitant look with Abbie, and then another with Kyle, who seemed somewhere between stunned and insulted. Again, he'd expected as much. 

"Why me? Aren't there better qualified pilots you could ask to do this?" He asked after a few seconds, glancing back to Vega with a brow raised so high that it tipped his cap to the side. 

"In terms of raw skill and talent, I can name fifty people off the top of my head who would probably be better suited than you are. In terms of reliability and experience with what the mission entails though, none of them can compare to you," Vega explained, carefully ignoring the fact that Mark had the devil's luck tattooed on his forehead. 

"Experience?" Mark asked, echoed by both Kyle and Pierce. Neither of them were exactly what one could call supportive about it. 

"You fought the Hellwalker and personally contributed to its demise," Vega explained, bluntly. "You have more experience fighting Demons like that than anyone else I haven't already asked," he added, glancing over to Pierce and addressing her directly before she could even object. "And yes, that includes you. You weren't there for the entire battle. I saw it. I know. End of discussion," he pointed out, silencing a woman at least twice his age in less time than it took for her to be offended by it. 

"Did you ask Bill?" Mark asked after a few seconds, drawing another glare from Kyle and, wisely, ignoring it. 

"Yes. He's onboard. As is Jamie Hameros," he explained. _This_ angered Pierce. 

"He was there even less than I was!" She shouted outright. At this, Vega glanced over at her again and spoke up with a far colder, more blunt tone than the one he'd used even when addressing Bit. 

"This is, in essence, a fucking suicide mission, Pierce," he stated. "While the run to the Sea of Witchery will probably be uneventful, following that, everyone onboard will be sent to face the Asmodeus. Even if you've been busy elsewhere, you _know_ what that is, don't you?" He asked, and judging by the look on her face, she did. He could literally see the woman's expression tense up until it looked like a cross between a deer in headlights and someone who'd been smacked with a sledge hammer. 

It was almost mirrored by everyone else but Alistair, for that matter. Even Mark, whom Vega had observed as being less serious than most comedians, looked crestfallen. The rest were no better, and in Abbie's case, considerably worse. 

"_He's not going_," she sputtered out after a few seconds, trying to leave no other say in the matter. "I won't let him..." 

Mark was silent. 

"It's not your choice," Vega and Alistair both said in the same breath, though the other boy had a far less blunt tone to his voice. If not for the fact that he had partially expected that too, he would've probably been disturbed. 

"It's his," he said, alone this time, looking over to Mark and knowing that, as he did so, Abbie was as well. Where Vega's was inquisitive though, hers could've probably burned holes through a steel wall. 

"So... What'll it be?" Vega asked, tucking his hands into his vest pockets and waiting patiently. 

For the longest time, Harlock didn't do a thing but stare away from the lot of them, occasionally gulping and generally looking lost. Abbie was obviously on the verge of screaming several times, but the enormity of the situation was starting to set in on her as well. The enormity that went past the possibility of dying. 

Obviously, Kyle had told all of them about what had been discussed last night. Aside from prior objections, no-one spoke to try and influence him at all. 

Finally though, he did speak. And he gave the exact answer that Vega knew he would. 

"If... If Abbie can come, I'm in," he said, still not looking at anyone, even though they were all staring at him. "If she _wants_ to come, I'm in," he added, though his voice was weighted and stressed. At that, he had finally looked back to Vega, and then Abbie. While it seemed like he was throwing the weight of the decision on her shoulders, Vega found it obvious that Mark was going to go come Hell or high water. 

Her answer came with surprising swiftness, but expected tension. Her eyes were watering, her sister was staring at her and, for that matter, so was everyone else. She didn't actually say a thing, but she still nodded an affirmation to Mark, who in turn looked back to Vega and pulled the visor of his cap down a little. 

"Count me in then..." 

"How many do you have now?" Leon asked. Which was good, considering that he was the last name on Vega's list. 

"Seven of eight," he explained, though the first of the lot was still missing. "Including myself. You're the last one on the list," he stated. 

"_No_," another voice finally broke loose from behind Tauros. It was Kyle, who in turn stepped out from the man's shadow and glared hellfire in Vega's direction. 

"No, what?" Vega asked. 

"_No_ to him being #8. Do you not _see_ the shape his Zoid's in?" Kyle demanded, jamming a thumb at the Red Blade... Just in time for a stabilizer cap to pop off and fall to the ground. 

"It can be fixed by tomorrow afternoon," Leon shot back, genuinely offended. The two promptly glared at each other while Katherine, and to a far lesser extent, Pierce, glared at both of them without a word. 

"Sooner, actually," Vega replied, nodding behind him at Specular. Accordingly, she hissed at both pilots, bringing them to an abrupt stand-still. 

"Mine can still fight better," Kyle growled. 

"Last time I fought you, I beat the _snot_ out of you without even having to use my _blades_," Leon shot back again. 

"_That was then_," Kyle retorted, holding up a fist. "I could beat you _blindfolded_ now." 

"Wanna b-" 

"Will you two _stop_ trash-talking like third graders already?" Katherine snorted out, echoed by Pierce's roll of the eyes. "It's a _suicide mission_. You're practically fighting over who gets to _die _first." 

Both of them stopped, looked at her, then each other, then shrugged. 

"I'll go," Leon said. 

"Over my dead body," Kyle interjected. Just before jamming a finger in Mark's direction. "Where he goes, I go. _Suicide Team_, after all," he pointed out, which practically caused a vein to burst in Kat's forehead. 

"I have an idea," Vega mumbled out. While he'd expected some resistance, he hadn't expected anything like this. Both of the pilots again halted, then glanced over at him, while he in turn looked elsewhere. 

"Anyone got a coin?" He asked. The answer was a chorus of people digging through pockets before someone, probably Alistair, tossed a quarter at him. 

It was the standard Neutral territory quarter - a silver coin with the Guardian Force emblem on one side, and the head of a Blade Liger on the other. The sides were notched, the coin itself was large. It landed in his newly outstretched hand before anyone else had even spotted it glittering through the air. 

"Alright," he paused, getting everyone's attention once again while ushering Leon and Kyle to take a few steps apart from each other, one on either side. 

"Heads for Leon, tails for Kyle," he stated, and both men nodded incredulously. 

With that, the coin went airborn... 

Time seemed to slow as it flickered up between the heads of both Mazemia and Tauros, forcing them to make eye contact with each other in the process. As if he could see it in slow motion, he watched their anticipation building, and saw Leon in particular slowly start to grimace. 

It hung between them like the frozen chime of a clock, spinning and glimmering almost painfully in the sun's fading orange light. Silver almost became gold, and as it did, Vega could swear that he saw the coin's sides reflecting into both their eyes. 

Finally though, time resumed. 

The coin dropped. Vega caught it with one hand, then slapped it into his wrist and- 

"Kyle can go," Leon stated. Vega blinked. 

"... Huh?" Mazemia asked, one brow raising straight into his forehead as he did so. "What the hell?" 

"You can go," the older pilot repeated again, hands slowly tucking into his pockets as he did so. 

With that, and not another word, Leon Tauros turned around and walked off. 

As he did, Vega could swear that he heard the man mumble something, almost inaudible were it not for the Micro-Sworder that slipped across his path as he walked. 

"Everything and everyone has a purpose," he whispered to himself, the sun setting behind Gyran's distant walls before him. 

"I just didn't know mine until now..." 

And then, Leon Tauros, like the sun before him, was gone.

* * *

**And then there was one**, Specular said some time later as Vega arrived at an exit onto the top of the Northern Wall. It was supposed to be nothing but a maintenance walkway, though armed guards had once taken point there years ago, before Zoids had almost completely replaced the infantrymen of yesterday. 

Tonight though, it served as an observation deck. A cliff so high that one could seemingly look out across the world, and as Vega and Specular stepped onto it, they were greeted by the sight of a blonde man with a golden Organoid standing next to him. None of them exchanged greetings, and for a while, none of them even made a sound beyond the slow noise of feet hitting the reinforced concrete beneath them. 

Finally, Vega came to a stop next to Bit, and Specular took point at his side. To the opposite side of the older pilot, Zeke stood. Together, the four of them gazed to what they knew, at any level, would be their final destination. 

"Count me in," Bit finally said, just in time for the two to spot a flicker of red on the horizon. 

"I knew you'd make the right choice," Vega replied in kind. 

Before them awaited an uncertain future, waiting within a moment of transition, only to be born in a moment of revelation that had yet to come. Neither of them truly knew that future, nor did they know where it would take them. They knew only that it would be born in pain, for the future, like so many things, always is. 

_ End Chapter Sixteen

* * *

_

**Author's Note:** SUCK IT DOWN, WRITER'S BLOCK! SUCK! IT! DOWN! >D

FYI: Yes, Zinou, the picture you drew me was directly inspired by the Leon scene. It didn't quite have the same impact as the drawing, but I hope it still knocked people's socks off.

Points for guessing where the inspiration for the end paragraph of this chapter came from.

Sh33p out. 


End file.
